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r Batman, Jon Ritman and Sernue 
Drummond present ‘Headover 7. |. 

| Heels’ — Hi) Myname’sMr. Head Some [9.8 ~sSeRe: 

say I'm the one with the brains but | dont I 
I'm areal sharp shooter, Gut without mny | 

- OWA, Heeb ld detnowhere fast. oe aie i 

@ slow! |! can jump thee a fles and even side but Hers = tne Dairy 
Thompson of the two of us — he's FAST Together we canfindeach 
other, wet really do make an awesome twosome €nd thats the only wey 
We CaN overcome the emperor Blackiooth 


Screen shots taken from various computer formats 


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, Ocean Software Limited 6 Central Street - Manchester M2 5NS- Telephon 


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UM and AMSTRAD 


SPECTRUM &£/-9S COMMODORE £695 AMSIRFAD EB-95 


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: 06! 832 6633 - Tek Telex: 669977 Ww Facsimile : 061 834 0650 


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AMSTRAD ACTION AUGUST 1987 


FRONT END 


NEWS @ LETTERS 





()' REACTION 


Problems with incompatible Epson printers, an ag- 
grieved Dragon owner, lots of messages from ex- 
Amux readers and many more of the liveliest letters 
in town 


l Help is at hand from the biggest-hearted, most helpful 
people we know - our helpliners. Go ahead, make a 
fnend 


] Beep-Beep, here comes the Road Runner and news 
of other US Gold conversions, plus the rest of the news 
serous and otherwise 


SERIOUS SIDE 





SOFTWARE @ HARDWARE @ PROGRAMMING 


2 A PROBLEM ATTIC 
Our resident expert gets to grips with quenes about 
Setup under CPM, patching Wordstar and explaining 
what a modem 1s 


2 * SOUNDBLASTER 
eal The latest hardware add-on that will make your 
computer sound like a heavy-metal group 


2 SUPADISC 
| A suite of disk utilities for investigating the depths ol 
your disks. 


3 REALTIME CLOCK 


A hardware plug-in that will always keep you in touch 
with the real world — dont be late reading this one 





3 WORDS WORK 

5A new requiar feature showing you how to get the 
most from your word-processor and printer. This 
month we look at time-saving shortcuts in all the major 


cS fF Pee 








4 MICROSTUFFER 
» Not as rude as it sounds, it is in fact a 64K printer 
bulter that will save hours printing out long documents 


2.4 TASPRO 
| Microspaces your text to stop ugly inconsistent spaces 
in jushfhied text 


3 *’ A cheap competitor for Maxam JI in the assembler 
monitor'editor stakes 


ACTION & ADVENTURE 





GAMES @ MAPS @ PILGRIM 


4] ACTION TEST STARTS HERE 


You've read the rest, now read the best. Details on 
whats in the best game reviews for the CPUs 


4 | Hack, slash, chop and decapitate your way through a 
graphically superlative combat game. Forget the 
sexism, here's the game 


4 If you were confused by Rubiks cube then this will 
drive you up the wall — literally. Puzzling and shooting 
combined delightfully 


4 MAG MAX — Mastergame 

© 4 A shoot-em-up with 2D and 3D stages, lots of levels, 
endless vaneties of aliens, joystick-wrecking action 
and fabulous graphics. Thrills and a sore trigger finger 
quaranteed. 












a ee ee eS — a a ae a ae q 


——s 


| soeeeee wren nee rer eee renen 
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5 THING BOUNCES BACK 

— The bouncy star is back with lots more springy tasks 
to complete as he tnes to collect a program to shut 
down an evil toy factory. 






Tour i] f / e, 

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? » HOT TIPS 
=). Patcning bugs if AMS Pager | - | 
and using rhe Input and InKey command a < 


+c CHEAT MODE ne taurstin Othe Aldertom. angela Nea! 
~* | ) Nothing © an prevent ihe plea al of, pores bursting | Publ her: Chris anderson 


from the disassembler® of the aggempie 











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sparkling goodies # lovely Pmce i's the ©85) sg 


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FELASA 





ALBERT R. BROCCOLI 
Pie wile 


Lnatrnd cece VW 





feeatane, TIMOTHY DALTON 


Tallil Me tae ete 





i MARYAM dABO JOE DON BAKER 


On Laesigry 


THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS 


“ae as IAN FLEMING’S iy7 
——— JAMES BOND 0077 , 


DOMARA 





2 ART MALIK and JEROEN KRABBE 


du PETER L AMONT Music by JOHN GARRY Associate Produrers 
yal BE RI R BRO A ‘OLI and MICHAEL G. WILSON 1 Dire 


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TOM PEVSNER and BARBARA BROCCOLI 
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REACTION 








You 


get the last word on the previous issue ... and the 


first words of this one, oe those cards’n'letters comin’ 


in! Send to: Rea 





Queen Street, Bath, BAI! IE 





You're welcome tastion, S electronic mail - 84:txt152 on 


Telecom Gold or 045 874 





Oll on Micronet - but do 


mention “Reaction” as well as your own name and Earth © 


We cannot possibly reply individually, so please don't 
be offended: what we are busy writing is the next issue 
of your favourite magazine. If you have problems with 
subscriptions or mail-order, please write direct to those 
departments, which remain at the Old Barn, Somerton. 


|= 


Don’t be alienated, but... 
I recently bought Electric Dreams’ 
Abens on disk. I just cannot pro- 
gress any further into the program. 
All 1 seem to do is kill the warriors 
that appear on the screen. I have 
not come across any face-huggers 
or queens that should appear, or 
been able to get to the armoury 
or queen's chamber. Could you 
please help me and put me in 
touch with someone that could tell 
me what to do? | would be ex- 
tremely grateful. 

P Winter 

718 Harrogate Road 

Bradford, W Yorks, BD10 0QOE 
Since youre the first ouf of the 
Reaction bag tfus month, Paul, 
we ]] make no weary remark about 
how we keep saying we just can- 
nor (if we are fo wrife next months 
mag) give individual answers fo 
all the questions we get about 
games problems - not even if you 
enclose a stamp. Al) we can say 
is watch the Helpline for someone 
offering the expertise you crave. 





"THAT NEN GAME OF HIS 
KEEPS HIM GUAIET FoR 
HOURS...” 


| We do get phone calls from our 


loyal readers! One this morning 
Was Irving fo decide between 
Starstrike Il and Mercenary. He 


wanted us fo read out the scores 


and good and bad news from AA 
IZ, Ordinaniy wed have said, as 
polvely as possible, no time. Bur 
this was infernational: a japanese 


lad in Holland. 


For the cost of the call he 
could have bought both games. 


Off the bottom shelf 
All the time [ve had my Amold 
Ive read boring stuffy Amstrad 


| Magazines, ignorng the brilliant 


| Only now - 


fabbo AA on the bottom shelf. 
AA 20 = have I found 
the one ace magazine for me. 
What can I say? I have never read 
better game reviews, fype-ins, 
pokes and maps or linle round 


| blobs with legs rushing around the 


page. Congratulations to Alex 


' Gough and Derick Braithwaite on 


-_—— —— 


ee See 





their great type-ins in AA 21. 

Could you tell me the keys 
for Rajiv Gatha's one-liner game 
Star-dodging in the same issue? | 
can go only left. 

I'd like a penpal ['m |2 years 
old and own a 464. I'm into playing 
games and sport. 

Ben Thompson 

3 Swift Road, Moor Park 
Bamford, Rochdale, OL11 SRF 
Welcome fo the action on the 
bottom shelf, Ben. Use the Z and 
X keys: that's the meaning of the 
‘il and 63 in the Inkey commanas. 
If those dont work, you've mis- 


typed something. The listing is 
correct as printed. 


tor love otherwise 
[ totally disagree with Barry Marks 


4 | (Reaction 21). The Amstrad Action 


covers are some of the best I've 


| 


ever seen. They are onginal, funny 


and have a lot of imagination. 
Please don't make the covers into 
billboards for advertising games. 


The new look is great. Tell 
the Pilg to keep up the good work 


with the programming. Any 
chance of a beginners’ assembly 
course? 

Niall Dunne 

Waterford, Eire 

How many offer readers want 
such a course? 


Double your joy 

The Amstrad 464 has only one 
joystick port, so if you want to play 
with two joysticks you need an 
interface. Some friends at school 
said you can purchase an Amstrad 
joystick which allows another joy- 
stick to be plugged into it. This is 
just what I am looking for. Could 
you please print details? 
Chingford, London E4 

Youre talking about the Amsoff 
J¥-2 joystick, available direct from 
Amsoft in Brentwood. Irs not one 
of our favourite joysticks. Alfer- 
naftive/y go for one of the splitters 
mentioned in the Christmas AA. 


Crystal ball 

Please could you try and give 
release dates for new games? 
Redditch 

We would if we could rely on the 
dates we're fold! Sometimes we 
get advance copies, bur 30% of 
the time. when the review ap- 
pears, (fhe game if on the streets. 
That's the most reliable system we 
can offer. 


Disk wish 

I have a 464 and wish to purchase 
a disk drive, Can you please tell 
me what disk drives are available 
and how much they are? 

Also can you tell me which 
Infocom games work with the 464 
with disk drive and how much 
they are? 

Andrew McCartney 
Castleford, W Yorks 


You 'l/ need the Amstrad DDI-] as 
your first drive, costing £150 direct 
from Amstrad ple in Brentwood, 
Essex, or af various high-street 
shops. This contains the essential 
interface and software such as 
CPM. For a second dnve you have 
your choice among several manu- 
facturers. 

Didnt you read Keaction |? 
Or 21, which said to see 18? All 
Infocom games excepf the 
“Interactive Fiction Plus” range 
now work with all the CPCs. 











Games drive man batty 
Am I the only person who finds 
games difficult to get into? 

I started off with the superb 
Batman. No complaints of any kind 
except that it has spoiled me for 
other games. It gave me a taste 
for computer games which before 
[d been rather sniffy about, so | 
bought Tau Cen, Tomahawk and 
Bounder but I haven't been able 
to get anywhere with them. 

Tau Cen looks impressive 


and obviously has the potential to 


be a really enjoyable game, bul 
the instructions seem sparse in the 
extreme, almost as if the author 
does t want me to be able to get 


| inte if 


Perhaps this sort of aftitude is 


deliberate. If so, it seems a bit 
hermetic. Or perhaps ['m missing 


something that seems obvious to 
a younger generation? Anyway 
perhaps you would print my ad- 
dress in case some charitable and 
experienced gamester might offer 


| to ighten my darkness. 


By the way, I have a PCW but 
I buy AA for info about games. 
45 Bisterne Avenue 
London El7 JOR 


Copyright on type-ins 


When I send you a listing and you 
pay me for it, are you buying the 
copyright from me? And if you are, 
what does this mean for my use 


of the program or further use of i1 
by you? Say you wanted to use i 


| 


on a cover cassette: do I get 
royalties’ 

Tommy Daffin 

South Brewham, Somerset 

Yes, we are buying the copyright 
from you, and that means you 


| should not then submit the pro- 


| gram 


fo other publications 
(aithough of course you can use if 
yourself). If someone wanted fo 


sell us only first publication rights, 


we d consider if - but the someone 
would probably find subsequent 
publishers less interested anyway. 
The idea of royalties does not 
apply in the magazine world, 
where fees are one-off; with books 
or records or plays, royalties con- 


sist of a small fee for each copy 


sold or each performance, and 
could dribble on for 50 years. 


Hi-last 


| 
| 


Piease let this be the last letter on 
the subject of the hi-score pages. 


AMSTRAD ACTION 7 





REACTION 


Questions questions 

What does CPM stand for? Where 
did the charts go? Why are some 
of the keys on the computer on 
the cover of AA 20 upside-down’? 
Wi hat address? 
Arent you totally sack of Anment- 
lore-style games like Head over 
Heels? I am 

Ken Murfitt 

Crawley, W Sussex 


Mastertronics 


Control Program for Microcompu- 
fers; Dogital Research Inc kes fo 
spel! it CPM with a slash bot we 
gat fed up woth wt, fike ugilyTire- 
some capital letters in mid Word 

ance we dropped fhe all-pur- 
mose form with fi-score efc, not 
enough readers’ chart yotes came 
fo make a relable sample. We 
dont like retail-sales charts be- 
cause (hey don't reflect the games 
that peonle actually play and enjoy 
rmost 

ASK Api 

We are offen asked where 
Mastertronic hangs out, Try & Pau 
Street, London, EC2A 4fH 

No, says Bob. Just because 
they use a 3D format doesnt mean 
fhey re (he same game. Head over 
Heels is packed with new puzzles, 
characters, contro] methods, fAu- 
mour, graphics, . 


Amtlers 
[ got fed up with games like Trnvia! 
Pursuly not being available for my 
Electron, so | splashed out and 
bought an Amstrad 454 

l wsed to cast envious eyes 
over the masses of software for 
the Amstrad while looking through 
the pitifully small collecnhon for the 
Elk. My problem now is 
through a mountain of software 
which (i! the free twelve-pack is 
anything to go by) is 90% rubbish 
[ also purchased Thrust IL Hyper 
bow!, Stnke and Rasterscan. Now 
maybe [im hamfisted but | couldn’ 


Sorting 


get to grips with any oF them 
especially Strnke (mce music 


shame about the gare) 

Where's Amstrad’s answer to 
Gaaforce, fepfon, Citadel! or even 
qood old Snapper’? 

M] Hopewell 

Arnold, Nottingham 

That free twelve-pack is mostiy 
early Amsofft stuff 
rngnt by fodays 
mostiy rubbish 


fou re 
standards if is 


and 


Thrust efc arent easy. We 
wouwdn? wan! fou fo fee] unchal 
lenged, would we? We won't be 


so fude 48 fo agree wih yout 
‘hamfisted” remark 

fry Classic Axiens 
Snapper: pay Classc Muncher 


Supenor Software started a Cita 


Oalalorce 


cel Conversion, Bul seems fo have 
abandoned tf 

As for Repton 3. Steve Korte: 
manager of Su 


wi fhe general 


penor Software. oe a Ai embar 
Ped sted a! j aba rive i if visil if \ A mnsirad 
version. The programmer was far 


aon’ on fhe work and promsed 


8 AMSTRAD ACTION su: 


fo be ready for launch last Novem- 
ber, and ads - which have to be 
prepared jong in advance -— went 
ahead. (Most of them involved just 
fhe word Amstrad on genera! ads; 
ine Beeb and Commodore ver 
sions were ouf on time.) Then the 
programmer down with 
home problems 
‘It's the first time we've had 
(his problem. We don’t ordinanily 
like fo advertise before the pro- 
duct is ready.” They're now hop- 
ing for launch af the end of the 
year, “but / can’t oive a fixed date, 
i'm afraid." He added that cheques 
for any advance orders were nor 
cashed 
supenor has a half-dozen ofh- 
er goodies — wouldnt say what, 
excep! that theyre totally new, not 
CONVErSILs in the Amstrad 
pipeline for fater in the year 
Were working hard fo do as 
much as we can with the Am- 
strad. 


Veh! 


The AA Ed adds: “The Am- 
Slrads answer fo ali your ques- 
fons is revealed every month in 
Action Test by the Mastergame 
and Haves.” 





POES THIS 464 OWPNEP 
REALLY COME FROM ARMOLDS 


Our proj in your hands 
lam whiting to ask if you can send 
me 2s much informathon ash Peonst- 
ble on Amstrad computers and 
games. This is for my prodject in 
English at school. [| would be very 
Dlieased i you could help me 
Richard Reynolds 

Ipswich, Suffolk 

Well, Richard, we do produce a 
magazine every month called Am- 
strad Achon, packed with exactly 
fhe sort of information you ask 
Good luck wrth your project! 


Elite and Gauntlet poke 
SHould tie disk version of éfire 
have all the ships shown on the 
sup identincaton chart? Mine has 


ih eee Le P beat ai 


onfy the standard 
ships. Is this a fault? 
In AA 19 you printed a poke 
for the disk version of Gauntlet. | 
carefully typed it in and checked 
it thoroughly, but when it ran, the 
screen filled with patterns then tt 
printed “read fail” and the game 
would not run after that. Luckily I 
was able to get another copy from 
a fmend. There must be other 
stricken users out there with no 
Gauntlet to play. 
JD Hicks 
Bangor, Co Down 


tape-Version 


Firebird did not onplement all the 
situps on the disk version of Elite 
fhe onginal hope furned ouf not 
fo be feasibie 
As we warned last issue on 
page 6/7, there seem fo be hwo 
versions of the Gauntlet disk and 
no éasy way fo fel! them apart. Do 
not use the disk poke from AA I9 
f corrupts one of (hese versions. 
The aisk poke pnnfed in AA I1é. 
however, is safe because ifs re- 
versible 


Zeal again 

Wihal a great magazine. it's easily 

the best to reach our distant 

shores, even if i] doas cost 55.25. 
As if French frogmen and the 

Amencans on our backs isn't 

enough, here are a few of the 

pices we have to put up with 

Remember $NZ3 = £1 

CPG 6128 + colour mon 

DDI-| disk drive 

DMP 2000 printer $795 

AMX Art anc mouse ve 

Never mind, sunshine and fresh 

air is cheap and plentiful! 

Russell Parkinson 

Tirau, New Zealand 


$1895 
$795 


How do ! hack’? 


'm sure many of your devoted 
readers are mystified by the birth 
of the poke. How do we find 
pokes’ One thing thats certain is 
your popularity rise (if possible to 
better your stafus) were you to 
publish an eight-part course, may- 
be similar to Booting CPM (in 
issues 10 to 17). How about 1, AA? 
Please open the door to this elite 
felicity 

Matt Montieqgue 

Salisbury, Wilts 


Dozens of readers ask the same! 
Poke-finding is more an art than 
a science. But first youd need 
good knowledge of Basic and a 
grounding in machine-code. Fou d 
have fo know the ins and outs of 
the machine. And of course you 
must Know how (he game works, 
so that when working through the 
code you know what each section 
affects 

With protection sysfems, ns 
rather like asking how fo solve 
puzzles. You Aave fo put yourself 
info the mind of fhe programmer 

So ws a knack, Mafft — some 
fhing you can’t be faught in eight 


Elderly Epson 

I consider that | am due a few 
apologies from you I[ am an 
old-age pensioner with limited 
resources and time, and your 
magazne fas helped me to 
waste both. 

First will you please ensure 
that when you state a program 
is “Epson-compatible” you in- 
clude a definition of what you 
mean. I have an Epson MX80 and 
surely any Epson should be 
Epson-compatible! 

Your review of Print Master 
(AA 19) said it is Epson-com- 
patible. [ don't blame you entire- 
ly for this, for that is what Siren 
Software states in its advertise- 
ments, but as far as | am con- 
cemed it is not true. 1 bough 
Print Master on the strength of 
your review as I was particularly 
interested in the NL facility, but 
this just does not work with my 
printer. | returned the disk to 
Siren and got another with a 
customization program on it but 
this does not work either. The 
listing reveals that | requwre 
quadruple-density graphics. 
which the Epson MX80 has not 
got! 

In AA 20 there is again a 
type-in for a disk inlay claiming 
to be Epson-compatible. This 
time forewarned by previous 
failures [ checked the control 
codes and found that some I do 
not have, so on this occasion | 
saved myself a bit of effort 
GW Duell 
Scarborough, N Yorkshire 


Youre ngiv: the phrase “Epson 
compatible” is slung around a 
bif foo joosely. (Furthermore it's 

fhiful.) What if means is that 


fhe codes originally used by 
Epson printers fo do their vari- 
ous ticks have been adopted 
Dy offer maxers. Most of (hese 
start with the Escape character 
For instance Escape-E (Ascii 27 
69) starts printing in bold and 
Escape-F turns if off 

Trouble i that your MX80 
is itself quite tha OAP by compu 
ing standaras. Vew feafures are 





easy fessons. Learn machine-code 
and Wf comes with time 


Rare numbers 

l have every issue of AA up to and 
including issue 14. [ have sent 
away to AA for imsues 16 and I7 
Is anyone willing to sell issues 15, 
18 and 19 for £2 each? 

Alvin Thompson 

Hebburn, Tyne and Wear 

7 091-483 5117 


You can stil get issue [9 from us 
so dont pay £2. The curren? out- 
o-print ist is I, 2,3 6 Ii, (3, Is 
and /&. Back issues are kept af the 
Cd Barn 


constantly being invented. “If 
you were using our LO-2o00 
wiuch gs one of our fagship lines 
af the moment.” said Epsons 
fechnical support manager Bob 
Dobbs in Wembley, “youd see 
what youre nussing besides 
quad-densify graphics 

sensibly, however, wre Ep- 
son policy is fo add on, nof 
remove. In general a pnnter 
simply ignores Escape codes It 
does nof understand. So give 
el limmelelelicig something writen 
for the flagship and # will at least 
do ifs best 

The MX80 went on sale in 
(he UA in J9/9 and sfopped in 
It started off as Type I, 
wich did not lave quad-density 
oraplucs, and finished as Type 
3 whieh did. You dont say 
which type you have, bur you 
can get the ser of three upgrade 
chips for around £29 from var- 
lous dewers Sasa as Watford 
Electronics, Wied, or di- 
rect from PNP Siena (O706) 2! 
fi44 or 01-677 763] 

in reviewing, you can’ ex- 


1982. 


pect us fo fest a product against 
model of 


every conce:vable 
prinfer there just wouldnt be 
ime or office space. This is one 
reason we give phone numbers 
on senous-sofnvare articles 

You UE fw cy ? giad fo hear all 
las added a line about 
densify fo ms Print panes 
commenting, “inis i 
off a Jot of software cor mpal Fl es 
from releasing printer utilities. 

Well al’ print the phra: 

Epson-compaible” more . 


cqlousiy in furure 





Dragon roars back 


olaying the Dragon indeed! How 
Can someone who admits that he 
knows nothing about it laugh at 
the Dragon? (Kenny Moorhead, 
Reaction 21). The Dragon may not 
be a brilliant computer and it does 
have its bad points, but so do all 
the others. The Amstrad tape load- 
ing system is the worst | have ever 
used, nol a patch on the Dragon 
system, which is very reliable. 
And the disk drive on the 6128 is 
so slow! The Plus 4 was even less 
successful than the Dragon and 
survived only due to the massive 
power of Commodore's other sys- 


tems. 50 why not laugh at them? 
If Mr Moorhead. would care 
(oO Write to me or any other Dragon 
user (yes, we are still here and we 
still have our Dragon User maga- 
zine) we would be pleased to 
introduce him to the Dragon. The 
Dragon is still here, due mainly to 
its reasonably large user base and 
certain excellent compames 
(thank you, Microdeal), and we 
shall be around for some time yet 
io come 
Stephen Wood 
s2 Downsway, Springfield 
Chelmsford, Essex, CM] 5TU 


And, Stephen, you may even have 
provided comfort fo some CPC 
owners worried abour fhe immor- 
fality of their machines 


Unlucky or guinea-pig? 
Are software houses cutting pro- 
duction costs by “employing the 
customer as a quality-control? | 
have over the last’ few months 
purchased a game compendium 
disk, a utility disk and two games 
lapes all from different com- 
panies. Both the disks and one of 
the tapes were faulty. One disk 
had to be returned twice before | 
got a working copy. In no case 
was I offered a refund for the cost 
of packing and postage - which 
obviously increases the cost of the 
em to mnie 

Have I just been unlucky or 
is there a policy by the software 
companies which says, “Never 
mind the customer as long as I can 
make the biggest profit"? 
My Ellick 
Nailsea, Bristol 
Methinks you've just had unuck 
Most software fouses do care 
about their customers. Error can 
occur in duplication. 


Align and sign 

The azimuth on my tapedeck is 

out of line. Please could you re- 

commend an adjuster, the best? 
What do you think of my new 

improved handwriting? 

5 Evans 

Pencoder, Dyfed 


Interceptor Micros’ £9 head-abgn- 
ing Jat, the only one we've used, 
consists of a casseffe, a iiftle 
screwdriver and paper pointers - 
and a simple game, Chopper 
squad, fo fest foading. Interceptor 
is af Mercury House, Caveva Park 
Industnial Estate, Aldermaston, 
Berks, RG/ QW: phone (07356) 
i742] 

Your wilting is wonderful, 
apart from the signature. I hope ! 
guessed (he surname angit. Is ‘S" 
a boy or a guis name? Initials 
(dafelessness having been done 
fo death) are your /etitors pet 
peeve. People might as well have 
a sera! number. 





Alas, poor Amtix 

Thanks, AA, for clearing up the 
Amitix matter tor all the now ex- 
Amtix readers (like many, ! 
thought it was perhaps an April- 
fool). [ve always read both. It's a 
great shame that one of the two 
truly independent mags had to go 
[t's always good to get al leas! two 
different views before deciding 
which piece of software or hard- 
ware to buy. 

Camputing with the Amstrad 
the magazine thal is {0 Carry some 
of Amrx's old features, can never 
really claim to be truly indepen- 
dent, mainly because the same 
company thal owns and publishes 
it owns the official Amstrad mag 
Amstrad User. 

[ suppose | have a claim to 
fame. | wrote Amfix’'s last letter of 
the month and got zilch for it (cries 
of “Shame!", please), whereas after 
some persistence and near #l- 
cide I go a lovely copy of Batman 
from you when my letter was a 
software winner 
John Gigney 
Cold Norton, Chelmsford 


@ The reason why Amfix ceased 
publication, I think, is that it just 
couldn't compete with AA. If it had 
had a more adull approach, some 
excellent type-ins, better reviews, 
.. then just maybe 

MI Fleming 

Birmingham 


@ 1 was a former Amtix reader, 
and it came aS a great shock to 
me to be told at such short notice 
that Amfix was folding up. | used 
to enjoy laughing about the anti- 
AA letters printed im the mag. A 
magazine called Computing with 
the Amstrad is now printing Apm- 
fxs best features like Amtips. But 
it will never be the same. | must 
now read AA and I find it's bril- 
liant 

Jonathan Cale 


Exeter, Devon 


@ | used to read Amt cover to 
cover, enjoying it very much. Then 
they announced the ternble news 
After wiping the tears, | read there 
would be a few familiar points in 
Computing with the Amstrad 
Apart from the Amtix bits — restric- 
ted to only seven reviews — the 
rest was boring. 50 | turned to- 
wards AA, not very keenly though, 
alter hearing how bad it was in 
Amtux's letters pages. But I found 
I enjoy Four Magazine quite a bit 
(not as much as Amfix of course) 
and | almost read it from cover to 
cover 

Luke Rea 

Crawley, W Sussex 


@ 1 started buying AA only at 
Christmas, because | saw the 
cover tape. I coughed up my cash 
and found it much better than my 
usual Amstrad magazine (ACL) 
When I saw the reviews and the 


Train Toot to carry oopy flat so print won't lal) off 


REACTION 





large Cheat Moce section [| im- 
mediately ran to the newsagent 
and cancelled ACU and ordered 
AA 

Mark Scott 

Blackley, Manchester 


@ Thank you for the warm wel- 
come to us forlorn Amy readers 
in AA 20. The one thing that is 
missing in AA is zany competi- 
nons. You might say we have had 
our comps cut off and it's making 
our eyes water! Computing with 
fhe Amstrad wouldn't know a com- 
petition if they fell over one, so if 
you wWarnl to mop us 18,000 you 
Know how you can co it 

[ was a subscriber of yours 
but didnt renew Because if ar- 
rived regularly a week after it was 
in WH Smith. Good mag. poor 
distribution. Anything you can do 
to improve the situation? 
G] Bostock 
Urmston, Manchester 


How Jong ago was your subscrip- 
Hon? We recentiy tucked in (af 
random) a survey form woth sub- 
scription copes as they were 
posted, and very few produced 
complaints such as yours: 50% 
reported their copy arrived 
promptly. The official on-sale date 
ig the first Thursday of the month, 
and subs copies are posted six 
days earlier. 

i's mce fo hear that Amtix 
readers are finding a happy home 
with us. We loox forward fo many 
more joing them and enjoying 
these pages. 





MiTS A GREAT GAME BAT 
RATHER Too mANY HAZARDS! 


Disks and bolts 

Have you been into a do-it-your- 
sell store and seen those boxes 
for holding bolts etc? You'd have 
noticed the similarity to a disk box. 
The shop sold them at under a 
pound 

simon NicNally 

Melksham, Wilts 


AMSTRAD ACTION 9 


REACTION 


Sugar, of course 


After giving Gauntler 92% how | 


could you give only 90% to Senti- | woas Co, Kildare, Lire 


ne]? This game is outstanding - 
originality and enormous 10,000 
locations. And how on earth could 
you give only 71% to Super Cycle? 


This game was also very good and | 
deserved a Rave at the very jeast. | 


1 would like to know what 
people's favourite food seems to 


be when sitting at their keyboards. | 
Mine is pizza and a juicy big | 


hamburger. 
Gareth Jones 
Whitstable, Kent 


“Absurd to moan about 90%," says 


Bob. “You can't get a much better 
endorsement. And I don't think 
71% suggests a duff game. I dont 


expect everyone fo agree with my 


ratings because people like all 
sorts of different games. We aren't 


the judge and jury for a game, just 


the Jawyers acting for both the | 


prosecution and the defence — the 
public decide a game's fate.” 





"ITS i CASE HE GETS Lost " 


Anyone for Guinness? 
I have so far bought 149 games - 


all originals. | have never copied | 


a game in my life. Is this a record? | | 


Snoopy & Woodstock 
Heswall, Merseyside 


Acute, giant problem 
Horrible foul-up in AA 20! It has 
horrified the whole Irish AA-read- 
na Nog”. Let me give you Rule 
Number | in the Insh language: 
the fada or slash always goes up 
to the right. So Nog should be Nog. 
But what had Cachulainn got 
to do with Tir na Nog? Oisin was 
the son of Fionn MacCumbhaill, and 
it was he not Cuchulainn who went 
to Tir na: Nig aa every trish peveon 
knows. I understand this may be 
the fault of Gargoyle Games, but 





Go raibh maith, agat agus 


| sian. Translate that if you can! 


You're nght we'll blame Gargoyle! 
ee ee 
the game's packac : 
Sanath 3 cenibad acceeie alicag: 
ther —- but ag you seé,. we can do 
all Sorts if we try. 

Hope your Gaelic ain't nide! 


Eternal life again 





(Reaction 18) over the difficulty of | 
some arcade games. | think the | 


easiest way round the problem is 
for the game producer to incor- 
porate difficulty levels and extra- 


lives controls, giving a chance to | 
| complete a garne, or at least see 


a good percentage of it, without 


spending hours getting killed off 


My other problem is that 


being new to the Amstrad I have 
purchased some older 
(Batman, for instance) and do not 
have the pokes printed in earlier 
issues. Could you please print a 
few older pokes for newer play- 


ers? 
Robert Hackney 
Roade, Northampton 





games — 


Just for you, Robert, (and for Dan | 


Waynman of Denmark and a thou- 





Intimating immortality 
now buy a new 464 for under £150 
there is bound to be a large 
number of first-time users, and as 
items — things like 7? means PRINT 
and ' means #£8, I could not find 
this info in the manual. Please try 
to keep up simple type-ins - the 


| you to get used to the machine 


before you print anything, please | 


10 AMSTRAD ACTION 








new to the machine, and remem- 
ber the excitement they had typ- 
they think of programs that will be 
help to us first-timers. 


You must have come upon a lucky | 


local discount. The 464's recom- 
mended retail price has always 


been £199 with mono monitor (add | | 


| 
| 


£100 for colour, another £100 for | 


6/28). But we take your point. 


Blue doom looms 


Help! Has anyone a poke for | 
Doomsday Blues that will give | 


infinite strength and fitness? | 


need to break down the last door | | 


in a collapsing room but I haven't | 


got enough energy. 
Jerome Chin 


Caerphilly 


International corner 

l was not a regular reader of AA 
until i saw the new design and 
layouts: well arranged and pleas- 
ing to the eye. 

Anyone interested in sing 
the 54-inch disk drive — with or 
without knowhow — is welcome to 
write. There is a small group of 
Amstrad enthusiasts here. | would 
love to correspond with anyone in 
exchange of computer know- 

ledge, especially program behav- 
i a ii se, 
Block 34, 01-173 Strathmore Ave 
Singapore 0314 


@ I'm living in Poland, in town 





@ [d like to congratulate you on | 


your excellent use of language — 
my English teacher says that, even 
if he doesn't agree with program 
(-mme), mag (-azine), Pilg (-rim). 
I have all issues since February 
ways become better and even 
We do try fo maintain a crafts- 
ed phrase and properly construct- 
ed sentence. Teil your teacher that 
ini crea ad arate eas 


keep the extra -me though Ameri- 
cans gef on nicely without i. We 
presume your feacher recognizes 
that Greek is the root of the Eng- 
lish -gram (as in telegram) Ask 


lum how the useless letfers ever 


crept in anyway. 


ievers| weeks age ] wrowe « reiher lengiby loner jo You i conrection mtk ihn 


(HePESFS aie 0 aati 1a 
FUME (Per Luairpri 


wrrinniagy an comple: preursialion of compar 
due gale io li daegih of fa eee Ue) mene) ase, in, 
Lage’ 


it Ur Sage 








®@ [spend my life cooped up ina 
harsh land devoid of CPCs. You 
may guess that | am in prison. | 
am not. I am in a public school. | 
| find your mag quite good after the 
Aenmd and the Odyssey. 


| "ITS A PHONECALL FROM New 


ZEALAND COMPLAIING 


| ABOUT THE a oe ane 


FROM NEW ZEALAND . 


_Macsenbuster 


I bought Macsen’s game JSiock- 
busters in spite of your review (AA 
T). It's a good game, whatever its 
limitations, and | really enjoy play- 
ing it. So | was very interested in 
an ad on the inlay for a cassette 
featuring BUENAS sets = 
an pumila I sent for it‘ medi 
ately. 

Solicitors returned my cheque 
telling me that Macsen Software 
has been forced into liquidation. 

Do you know any means by 








| which I could get hold of a copy 


of this program? 

Hemel Hempstead, Heris 

Your best contact is the solcifor 
again: ask if bankrupt sfock is 
being sold off We can't remember 
a supplementary question tape, 


| but maybe someone else knows 


otherwise? 


More modest than this? 





CEI) “GA Geas 30 lines tak co 
Yie-ar Kung Fu | became rather 
off so that I could play Green 


HR Hunting 
Cleveland 


I bet even RpM could beaf you af 
Green Beret with fis compufer 








Machine-code mystery 

| very much like your new-look 
issue. But you could still improve 
it by starting a machine-code sec- 
ion for people wanting to learn 
how to write games 

T] Hardman 

Warrington, Cheshire 

Try the book Master Machine- 
code on your Amstrad CPC 464 & 
64 by Jeff Naylor and Diane 
Rogers (Sunstune Books, ISBN 0 
hae a 7 Paper back £/). if Fou 
subscribe fo AA, you can have the 
boox [ree 


The last hoot 

[ think poor Toot has a hard time, 
so | would like fo start up the 
Lfi.g.T.o.h (fund for geting Toot a 
new home). There is no member: 
ship fee but all members must 
promise to give aid to Toot 
Roger Murphy 

Glenageary, Co. Dublin 


@ | would like to see more of Toot 
because he is so cute. 

Simon Hunt 

Gloucester 


™ Vote for Toot in the general 
election of 1991-92. We are fed up 
with all these boring pollicians 
Are we going to stand for this 
much longer’ No! Vote the AA 
party, vote for Toot. Manifesto: 
Make bad computer games illegal 
[no name} 

Blackburn, Lancs 


M@ How angry |! am that when 
anything goes wrong you blame 
that lovely linke pingpong all on 
legs! It makes me more angry than 
US Gold's World Cup Carnival 
Steven Lunt 

Wigan, Lancs 


@ Sugarman is great. Can you ask 
5 Sarkar (what does the 5 stand 
for?) to feature Toot in next 
months Sugarman, preferably 
being ripped apart limb from limb 
slowly by a giant 664-owning 
cream scone (not essential) 

And well done for being the 
only Magazine, tv program etc for 
not going on about the election 
non-stop. | predict Oceans next 
game will be Election 87 
Toby Briant 
Hereford 

‘rgin did release a game, 
Election, af £/0. Youll be happy 
fo hear we wont bother reviewing 
i. But wafcn out for Tes, Minister 

I's Saurav pronounced 
‘s00-rav’ = and Toot is not helping 
hum write his exams this month 


The last non-letter 
Dear Action People, 

Oh poo! [ve forgotten what | 
Was going to write. Oh well, bye 
then 
Justin Mason 
Sandown, Isle of Wight 


Helpline 


@ if you too feel helpful, just send us your name 
don't want it to be printed) and subject on which you want to help 


REACTION 


Where eager Amstrad experts volunteer 
assistance to fellow readers having problems 


address, phone number (say so if you 
Piease Write on a 


postcard or the back of a stuck-down envelope to simplify admuimstration here in the office. 
send to: Helpline, Amstrad Action, 4 Queen Street, Bath, BA] 1E]. 


@ If you are asking for help, make direct contact with the appropriate Helpliner 


dont 


pester your usually-patient (but harassed) editor. By post, you must include a self-addressed 
stamped envelope for the reply, otherwise you wont get one. And if you telephone, stick 


to socially acceptable hours! 


I ha 
Trevor Prince, 46 Hiliport Ave. Porthaill, Newcastle. Vals 
S15 SfZ 


Fi. 
O itearet. hd 
a 


Many. Laeiarerye | : Sey At 

ack. Blagoer 

Roger help y, bi ichage ary Wands Glenageary, Ce Deublen 
7 (0001) BO 6859 


ie ae i 
Craig Paterson, Orchard Mews. Village Foad (1 Harrow 
Chester. CHI 7/8 tT (08?) 40787 

Simeon Porreshe: 
Leicester, LES FHS 


1S Haberoft Bice Wigsten Magna 


iiy § 4 Lk j i Cage 4 ii z 
Steve McClay, 12 Lyecett Ad, Wallasey, Mereeyude, L44 7 DA 


Te _ ———_— —— 
Ded I JT i 


Mephen SieClormick. fF] Coshneuk Road. Mille ratan. Glasgow 
Gi eyH 


IR Murphy (aka Srv the ¥ cv! #5 Craven St, Accrnagton 
Lancashire, BBS OSE 

jason Barns, 71? Victoria Rd. Higher St Bwideans, Piymooth 
PL5 2D 


ice! lin ] 
Chat? 2 =" 


David Marek. ? Camus Road Went, Edinburgh. FH10 6RA 


Phil Steckdale. Thorndale. 13 Shire Ad. § Fermby, § Humber 
tide, DNIE OPC FF (0857) MI 


fea farce at -_ ial 


" "] hol aa ; . i A’ 
Alastair Scott, } Talbot 4, Grange mowth, Sturlangahire 
hKI SHU 
Michoarl Ewan. Hall Bank, New Hutton. Rendall Combria 
LAS OAL 


John Lawless jar, 75 Lew Bd, Cabra, Dublin / 


Pal Winstanley. |] Hollington Way, Wigan, WHI 6LS 


Franise, 103 Strathaven Boad, Leamahagow. Lanarkshire 
ML) GON 


i ee i i | Py i a 
Si Carter, 6 Laurel trove. Hoole, Cheater, CA? JA 

Darren jackson, $5 Pittherbern So Warrington. Cheshire, WA? 
Pi ais | 


i is 
i of aT a J li FT a i 


Cormac McGaughey, | Glenantt Ad. Cushendall, Co Antrim 
AT 44 OOY 


| pal ae | } i r 
Miarkt Bonshor, 4 Stoop Lance. Geom, nr Loughborough, Leics 
LEI? a8 


Thos oo the 4th tome | have written Please print this! 


ei a | 


Alastair Scott, Myine's Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh 
CH! ?PF 


J adver 


Phil Maxfield, 40 the Brow Brecics Rotherham, 5 York 
$65 IMP 7 10709) 44 5055 


Richard Hannah, 46 James St. Helensburgh, Strathelyde 
C4 AG Fr ree) 3310 


Tim Ain 190 foookiand Terrace, New York, North Shields 
Tyne and Wear, NETS SEP 


t 


wrl Harker, JE London Ave. Hacklen, Sidcup, Kent, DAIS oR] 


oF] 1 4 


jel i rea. | I I ref Tides Aree ai 


1 a & iT 
i g 


Edward Reid. 157 Ladyloan Ave, Dramchapel, Glasgow, 
Gis aRX 


Tiedt a 


i] ' ij _—" 1 4 ] Lf . purity be i! 1 if Pie rir 
Fa Bnghton, W Ranmoor View, 410 Fulwood Ad, Sheffield 
S10 Mais Fr dora?) WO 7555 


ear e 


Guy Sanders, 270 Willesden Lane, London, NW? 

CP, fa Tape progra 
Carnac Melaughey, | Glenant! Ad, Cushendall, Co Antrim 
BT44 OOT 


Lavin Manning, 70 Windser Ad. Wanstead, London, El) OY 
Te DO) aS Bes 


John Wharram, 61 Salver Crescent, Chiswick, London, W4 SF 


Tany Hoyle, 1) Dorget Rd, §t Annes, Lancs, FY FCD 
Tr (0753) T2 Fes 


= i 
| 1 iT é 


Fy Higginacn. i} Turon Rad. Bradshaw 
ILE Ty (0204) S490T 


Bolten, Lancs, BL2 
pe 


Andrew Smith, 5 Station Ed, foogathorpe,. nr Selly. WN Yorks, 
TOS TRU FZ (OTST 85) 540 


Lincan Lilia, 6 Cliften Termace, Ilkley, W Torks, L375 BED 
Martha Packer. 193 Whitten Are East. Greeniard. Mids 
UG OU FF 01-335 6600 w4 P83 or GO) -473 3457 


Soon Miller, 7 Inverness 41, Drumoyne, Glasgow, GS] 4EW 
taste ls ll | t | Ay Y oe. 


Allen Reare, 77 Mowrmeview 51. Portadown N breland 
ATG? JAW 


jim Tripp, 24 Orchid Cloae, Taunton, Somerset 
oe (0827) Sh49F if 


Pj Cook, Preste| 011 110 TS 


t =" . =" a. 


Tord | ast 
1 | | lg 1 1 i fa fa ed Ay Pag i 


wir BR Cope, 17) Honiton Road, Exeter, EX] JEP 


jeffrey Hunt, 2? Deweys Way, Gillingham, Dorset, 5Pa 4BW 


Durren Roafle Lendhurst, Station Road, Middle Drove, Wis 
beech, Cambs, PEI SP FF (0945 73) 26 


AMSTRAD ACTION 1] 





AMSCENE 








A. number of readers have com: 
plained about performance of the 
Multiface [I: certain users found it 
didnt always work correctly and 
on occasions crashed the com- 
puter. The Mulntace is a hardware 
tape-to-disk utility costing £46.95 
from Romantic Robot. A phone call 
to its director Alexander Goild- 
scheider brought us the following 
answers: 

“The Multiface, being a fairly 
complex utility, is lable to under- 
go changes every now and 
then...”. After pressing the Multi- 
faces red button, hit @ on the 
keypad and a number will appear 
at the bottom nght of the screen. 
This indicates the version you 
own: 76 is the latest revision. “The 
latest Version is not & Major up 
grade - the success ratio has been 
perfected and operation speeded 
up.” However, if you purchased 
the Multiface before this year get 
in contact with Romantic. The 
early software on rom had a few 
faults. These have been cleared 
Up and great improvements made 

Overheating occurs on a 
small percentage of Amstrad 6126 


12 AMSTRAD ACTION 


_ Muttifacing the problem 


machines, as Alex explained: 
“Since March, the Multiface is 
Mmanulactured in such a way that 
it Can be internally switched to suit 
CPC 6128 machines. Only a minor- 
ity of 6128s - those with an im- 
perfect ULA - show a tendency to 
crash. The usual effect is ‘snowing’ 
on the screen, which grows into 
small vertical lines.” 

If you know what you're doing 
you can open up the Mulnface 
Youll notice two groups of three 
pins. Both are situated below the 
red switch - one set is vertical, 
the other lower down is horizontal 
They are covered by black caps. 
Remove the caps and with them 
link the top and centre pins and 
centre and left pins together 

Worned about invalidating 
your guarantee?’ Or afraid of dam- 
aging your Multiface’? Send it to 
Romantic Robot, 15 #Hayland 
Ciose, London, NWS OLH. Roman- 
tic offers an upgrading service at 
£4.95 plus postage (UK £1, Europe 
£2, rest of the world £3). If you 
have other quenes contact Mr 
Goldscheider on 01-200 8870: he'll 
[Ty and sort you out 








Seas of reason 


Ocean will have Wirbal/ on the 
shelves shortly. The game, involv- 
ing nine planets and a home base, 
puts you in contol ‘of a wizard 
Your task in this £9 cassette game, 
is to collect coloured creatures 
and mux them together at home 
base 


Price cut 


Remember Xivler Ring? We re- 
viewed if back in April (issue [9) 


Have you seen it in the shops? 
Probably not: Anolasolt got as far 
as mastering the game, but never 
got round to distributing it. Aman- 
da Barry at Ariola says the com- 
pany was in turmoil at that time 
due to restructuring 

Killer King, under the Reaktor 
sicker, is going to be re-released 
al £5 (less the obligatory penny) 
To keep it company, two other 
games will be placed in the same 
price bracket: Deadringer. a 3D 
racing game in space and Mountie 
Mick's Death Ride, which involves 
the Royal North- Vest frontier cop 
getting his man. The games are 


available only on cassette 





Designer 
characters 


Goldmark Systems is releasing 
a font designer - another 
printer-oriented package to join 
its buffer kit for the DMP 2000 
and 3000 (see AA 19). The new 
program, on tape at £8 or on disk 
at £12, lets you define the char- 
acter set or individual charac- 
ters sent to the printer. 

The package makes use of 
an 8-bit printer port if you own 
one, but works equally well 
without. Once characters have 
been defined you can load or 
save them when required. You 
can even make use of the de- 
fined characters from within 
Protext or Tasword. 

Your printer must be cap- 
able of downloading characters 
and otherwise understand Epson 
codes. Amstrad's DMP 2000 or 
3000 and Epson's LXA-86 are 
three of the many printers that 
fit the bill. If you are in any 
doubt contact Brian Barton -at 
Goldmark on (07072) 71529. The 
DMP printer buffer and charac- 
ter downloader software can be 
bought together for £12.50 on 
cassette, £16.50 disk 


(fe) (eMnrelines 


You've seen it on TV; soon youll 
have the chance of playing it on 
the computer. The famous Road 
Runner cartoon will soon appear 
on your CPC. Programming is 
under way and from the excite- 
ment shown by Richard Tidsall of 
US Gold, the game promises 
much 

Road Runner follows the drift 
of the cartoon: Runner must outwit 
Wile E Coyote. Scenes include 
chases and dodging coyote traps 
What promises to produce a smile 
wil cost £10 on tape and £15 on 
disk. Beep- beep. 

Other future Gold releases 
include Ailed Unril Dead, Survivor 
and Temple of Deom 

Filled Until Dead is a graph- 
ical adventure-type game. You, in 
the quise of Hercule Holmes, must 
solve the murders that took place 
at the Gargoyle Hotel 

As for the other two games, 
were in the dark. Presumably 
Temple of Doom will closely fol- 
low the film 











c pent to get an Asie 


fein — ~ like Its iil 
iS ago. Perhaps it was 
shocked the 
board of censors: £10 on cassette 
and £15 on disk 

No plans have been made to 
pass Ninja Hamster under the 
censors eyes. However, this may 
change as the game is supposed 
to feature violent martial-arts se- 
Vil rats and lizards. You 
can expect lo pay LE on 
and £15 on disk 


Quences, & 


Cassette 





Lots of abels 


Ariolasoft, which seems fo intro 
(the same 
products, is launching 
another label —- Viz Design Paul 
Smith, Bniae of 
Frankenstein, will head a team of 
wogrammers for 65-bit machines 
heir first job F 
London. Amstrad, Spectrum and 
Commo dore VETSION are (6 app aa we 
later in the year 


Matt 
of the mask 


Gremiin's latest is MASE. The 
game will cartoon hero 
Matt Trakker and cost you £10 a1 
cassette, £15 on disk 

The storyline tells of a vicious 
battle between MASE agents and 
the VENOM network. The planet 
les scarred and lifeless. Many 
NLASR. agents were captured Dy 
VENOM and scattered among 
Earths ruins. Naturally Matt is m 
ol thé Moment and must retneve 
all the good quys 

MASE is due for release in 
early August 


duce software labels ai 


rate as 


programmer of 


ry 


er i: 


1eatuire 


See you there 


) be the largest-ever 


Amstrad computer show, with 


official” scribbled all over i, is 
or AT eee away. Fl a exuT nibitor 


stands have been booked And 

Alexandra Palace 
yorth London will 
with COMP ATEES new 


strad scene. Novote 





smith, the Dast VeTilie, mas Deen) 


outgrown 





Three ahaa went 4 ms 


P "I ae 
aa S Lie 4 


ryan from 
4 ee | 


Infogrames promises two 
scree] 

iIntormation 

Came the 


out, Appar 











Nicrote xi 
nee 7 


Mace it possible to re- 
BBCty’s Ceefax 
ITV's Oracle, for examp! le 
on the Amstrad CPC computer 
The onginal setup was not en tirely 
satislactory, needing both a video 
recorder and an adaptor 

A new version of Microtext's 
feletext adaptor is ready 
longer need a video: a tuner is 
bundled with the adaptor. Just 
plug it the CPC's expansion 
por. According to Milcrotext 
there is no need for fine tuning 
ihe 
The system also allows pages to 
be saved or printed 

The price is £114.80. Owners 
of the older adaptor can upgrade 
for £46.85 direct form Microtext, / 
Birdip Close, Hormdean, Han 
phone (0705) 59 5694 


ceive 


and and 


= 
=! 
ry 
=o 
id 
* 60 
fs 
et 
B 
Oo 
“4 
fil 
| 
B 


AMSCENE 





remains at the magn Stal dard and 


there is much more interacton 


ae: is less text (the lithe there 


7h 
‘as! 


Tw idl be 


him onl re r 


Pee. ee 


Oi c on te n ci rt oy 


mb yy et 
ro i 





1 
entiy Characters 


from ihe 








AMSTRAD ACTION 13 








| 


AMSCENE 





Weve compiled the gfe tults 
yuestionnaire in our Jun@tssue and 
here are the highlights or et you 
own 4645. 17% with a@tlisk drive 

ibn have 612485 and 6 seat bie s 
[he reason that the fiqures add up 
tO [03S tTS“thekgome of you have 
more (han ome Rach 
The wade age spread ofou 


t a 
Lie 


= 


readership was also revealéd: 86 
ure 12-16, 19% are 17-25 ahd me 
are 2o-40). ltoeeape over 40, sqryou 
can see weye Got iot of dillkrent 
1S to Ke #2 ha Dee 
TOU re —. to spend a 

Tuite @ Ot OF Toney in (he Nex! 
MOTUS Most Kop ular lems are 
puters and Sek drives. The im 
portance of printers Was also erm- 
phagized: 50° of you already have 
Wiis, 





ie wderSe- aie ames, word 
jrocessing and Bagie program 

ming no SweeTises there. This 
Was also raflegted in what you like 
bout AA. The four favourite Fee 
ORS tOFr DuUyIng the mac were 


[ = a a e cha | 
Action Test. Type-Ins, Ghea 


. ae FS it Lo ee 
There were lots of helpfpl 
E | i 
C754 7 cn | a ee rt | eed = \ 


ee ee ke 7 = f= my I —_ 
noove (ihe Mag, Some feasible 
rE. | 
bs 1 i . . ‘ = 
ne =i i F 7 } iy 
] i= 
r 1 ra iF ' T F F p =o = “~ T =, — 'F r 
eT = ob 4, ee Lt _ hh Lee. Bae 


ManKS to ell {hose that responded 


to the survew Its been invahible 





The future will seea cevastatine 
battle beoween the eight planets 
of the Hvtorian System. A: sist 
thats what Anolasoft leads us to 
baleve. Its) new game, | Starfox, 

anpears 0 ba 4 3D. @hoot-am-up 
Wh atackind ¢railamade up of 
Edid or) shaded) gmiphies !—7very 
bimidar to Srérsrike D 


Realtime is responsible fot 
Piogramning |Slarfax,, which ex 
pains the mimilanty to Starstnike 
hey dicl both’ £8 ancl £15 ‘ane the 
empeded \cassette and disk pn 
cés) Tow should be able to pick 


up 4 Copy in the shops now 





The latest vermorvol the raved gal! 
game from US Geld is. ¢allot 
Leade;ooard Tewaamer:, bo be 
four new Colirsées and fhe: smal) 
improvene nts 

The pew courses are in thw 
same mouid as those in the pre 
VIGUS Version no -bunkKérs. ‘io 
trees, a fairway of ground, atou! 
of water, Sull, sore of the shapes 
are difficult to play. But Chris 
Boothman repotts thatthe constant 
blue and green hurte hig eyes, 

his el ws as slow to dtaw 
the screen, bir They incorporated 
the age-old me: thad 6ftimwing the 
background Stredn and then fig 


14 AMSTRAD ACTION 


Pig Ff © the front. Putting is a bei 
Ssipwe, Dull not overly so. It may 
apped. [oO anyone new to Leade 
board but doesnt offer much else 
Much more exciting 
prospect of Morid Class Leader: 
hoard Vi & Te fon an Beary ademo 
of ius and + hold on to your hats 
ite got trees, bunkers, different 
shati@s of grass colour and ove! 
nea Views of the hole. Vie dor 
aoe When a review copy will be 
dvaaoie, | butiwhen it as.this could 
72 Teutimate sooerts simulation 
for tht Afwetracd. ‘Cant wait.” says 


rid 
thn 


al, 
‘i 7 | 
LIcCean fim 


prot 


Double 


We had a sneak preview ol 


ret. ft. fe . ‘OE Lighta dal | alot et 
ae FP te : ae ce Loe 


p Nae (=er-\0(-ie) | 


shows 





stakes 


Bath And very interesting 


(roo. Release date is late 


looked 





ol Playing at james Bond 
Ronnie on Arnie 


ree 


Martech has h ured a cardboard 
@it-out of Ronald Bdagan fo help 
with chia pPregiems fon its 
atest: The Armagedaon Man hate 
ivy will s@6 its Fblease on rhe 
Amstrad. You qgud@ Mr Armaged 
sriant task 
of controlhbng a natwork oO! spy: 


ind laser-detence Batellites. | 


don, who has the imp 


Gost. tS-on- cassette and i15 
disk. Belore-you gaspykhe price 
ficuaesa colour vinyl Dap iene 
@ortd-anc-ttie flags toes 
the parts you dont Lk@ fand 5g 
Change 

























@ Cypress Creek 


And the fourth, the “Gaunt Country Club” has been specifically 
designed for the “World Class Leaderboard” challenge — only those 


of the best golf courses in! world will come near to mastering 
“The Gauntlet”. | 

Whether at novice, amateur or 
professional levels, “World Class 
Leaderboard” will challenge you with 
the same demanding strategy. skill __. 
and decision making options set | 
by its real life 






The Gauntlet — dewgned to create the greatest test of a 
Soret 6 ihue SNS Bnd abies Sew COUrees COMMNG sucha 
Searched) ia Of accuracy and Courage harrowing ona 
periicous in the extreme 









innnews your game teaching 
see your bocal golf club 

hen all entries have Been recciued 
| ~ dosing date 31st September 1957 ~ the top J 
four players al each ee ee toa d 
conta ver te 7 





ge CBM 64/128 £9.99 rare £14.99 51Sk 
z AMSTRAD £9.99 rare £14.99 disk 
ACCESS SPECTRUM 48/128K £8.99 rare ~ 4 
SPECTRUM+3 £12.99 visk 
U.S. Gold Ltd., Units 2/3 Holford Way, Holford, Birmingham B6 7AX. Tel: 021 356 3388. 





TYPE-INS 





All set for Mandelbrot: a type-in on a fascinating frontier of maths, guided by RpM 


In the age of the supercomputer whole new areas of problem- 


28 iNPUT"Automatic or manual operation? Ca/m): “;aas 
solving have been invented because they're possible. Complex se > 


fF LEFTSCLOWERS(CanS),1)2"a" THEN GOSUB 1278 ELSE 


equations involving hundreds of thousands of calculahions have GOSUB 30 

become manageable. What would have taken hundreds of man- ‘2 END 

Years [0 complete can take seconds on a powerful computer Alex has been rather clever in the way he has used LEFTS and 
Several mathematicians theories have been explored in depth as LOWERS in this line. LEFTS (string expression, required length) 
a result of the computer. The Mandelbrot set - which stems from is the standard format for the command. Its function is to 
fractals — is both obscure and spectacular. Much has been made of =i extract the number of characters from a string 
Benoit Mandelbrot and the set he discovered in 1974. Why? Look [ —_ (specihed by required length) starting 


at the colourful eye-catching designs of ever-increasing cor raplexity f. | | from the left of the string. 
No use whatsoever — but breathtaking —* 
The Mandelbrot set is pictured as an area in two dimensions 

It's a collecnon of points defined by a simple repeated function 
You can see the complete Mandelbrot set in the picture — the black 
region. The coloured bands represent the behaviour of points as 

they get close to the set 

I's the complexity of the shape that makes the Mandelbrot set 
so fascinating: the more you enlarge and examine minute areas of 
the set, the more complex it gets. Although the area is finite — lies 
within the circle defined by x + 4 (which ['m not going to 
prove, you can get further details from Mandelbrot's book The 
Fracta/ Geometry of Nature) - the edge is infinitely complex and ol 
infinite length. Mathematicians have a word for this: fractal. A few 
recent games use fractal graphics to build, say, a real-looxing 

mountain from only an equation. Eidolon and Acronis All are two 
Enough of the background information. Lets get down to the 
nutty: gritty of things. Here is a type-in that will produce 
the entire Mandelbrot set and the other areas 
seen on this page. 





LOWERS forces a string fo lower-case - UPPERS does the 
opposite. It is now easy to see what line 30 does to your input - 
which is held in as$: the command LEFTS (LOWERS (CaaS), 1) = a will 
force an$ to lowercase and interest self in the leftmost character 
only. if the expression falls true, that is, finds that your inpul consists 
of an 3, youll be whisked off to line 120; otherwise you're banished 
to line 50. 


Dicing with data 


Notice line 100, which reads a$="'"+a$. The filename is held 
in 3&. The exclamation mark prefixed to a§ prevents the SAVE 
message appearing on screen (which would ruin five hours’ 
computer time). 


56‘ eee "7 Se” and "9g" sanual trout 

68 INPUT “Enter j.se Lreal axis starti: “33 
7A INPUT “Enter ck... Cimaginary anis start): 
80 INPUT “Enter gq... Canes" Lengthd: “;0 

7 INPUT “Enter filename to save picture under: "sa5 


A 


Mandelbrot Generator spied is EM cl ee : 
suey gt , | ee ; 110 GOSUB 28d: GOSUB 546: MODE 1: RETURN 
Alex Clark, the man from Lamlash in Strathclyde, is responsible 
for the listing capable of producing the spectacular Mandelbrot set. Once the program has accepted your input mt will GOSUEG 262 
(And thanks to all the other readers who submitted versions as a which does the calculating, G05U8 542 (draws up the picture and 
result of Owen Cunningham's letter in Reaction 21.) It has two ways saves it) and finally SETUSNs whence it came. 


of Operation: automatic mode draws the complete Mandelbrot set 


wih sara avch ctl eae chee date for "im *k™-and: "a" 
and six other interesting locations from the set; manual mode lets fe ty Ranger? Leet a ray : adil ‘s ve Be 
you select and view an area of the set. In either case the final design tae Fine Sikh ah tee iF par peste mi 
is saved to disk or cassette. It is best to run the program and leave = 4c ene .2 1 ty 4: vik coats ha Pir n et 
ge ray 52 FOR a=] 10 4: READ wuala),yala),sala): NEXT 
Arnold to do his bit for a day or so: each picture takes between Aa kusateacatantanetion itiealentcaae 
three and eight hours to produce. 172 DATA -2.5,-1.25,2.5 
Mandelbrot generator 1Be ' wee Interesting locations from set =*s 
2" by Alex Clark 19@ CATA -O.9, 8.15, 8.2 
- ' Amstrad Action August &7 200 DATA 8.353, 8.447, 0.805 
1G MODE 1: MEMORY BSFFF: DIM cX(255) 210 DATA B.34, 8.63, 8.04 


Wikthe leak nice on « t-shin AMST RAD ACTION ] 7 














TYPE-INS 


228 DATA -@.737, 8.25, 8.825 

230 DATA -@.725, 8.257, 8.086 

240 FOR pics=1 TO 6 

€50 aS="!mandpic"+A1OS(STRS( pics) 2,1) 

268 jexalpics): k=yal(pics): g=sa(pics) 

278 GOSUB 288: GOSUB 548: MODE 1: NEXT: RETURN 

If you picked automatic then you'll have landed here. Line 150 
reads in the data starting at 170 which holds the coordinates for the 
entire Mandelbrot set and five other locations in and around the 
set. If you wish you can replace the existing data with some of your 
own. 

The data is placed into arrays. Array 1a will hold the six 
different | values, ya the six « values and s0 on. 

Line 150 contains an interesting example of string-handling: a$ 
holds !mandpic. However, there is a plus sign following the closing 
quotemark, indicating more to a5 than is immediately obvious. The 
plus is followed by 410% and a smattering of assorted characters 
The function 4105 has the format M10$ (stringwarteble, position, 
new string length). It behaves in a similar way to LEFTS. The string 
variable in this case is $TRS$ (pics). The variable pics ranges from 
one to six (defined in the for-next loop, line 240), 5785 will convert 
a numeric expression into string form. So the net result is that a3 
will contain 'mandpici, with the final digit increasing each time until 
6. 





Assigning variables 

The next section of the program is responsible for working out 
and storing the different points of the Mandelbrot set. You should 
have no trouble following this part. What you may not have come 
across is the form variable%. The percent-sign tagged onto a Basic 
Variables name indicates a special type — an integer variable. An 
integer is a whole number, it does not allow a fractional part. There 
is a good reason for using this form of vanable: it takes up less 
Space in memory and consequently increases execution speed. 


¢60 ' s#* Mandelbrot set generator #++ 

2€90 BORDER @: INK @,@: INK 1,15; PAPER @: PEN 
300 PRINT “RUNNING” 

318 tot=o 

328 sk=255 

338 h=g/l2a 

348 add=65000 

350 FOR jh28 TO 12? 

268 t=TIME 

578 FOR ki=@ TO 12? 


MODE 1 


S8@ utj+hejs 

396 vekeheks 

408 nte-TixeO: yee 

418 yeryry 

428 c2Z =x*E 

430 yedeney+y 

640 weud-ye*u 

£58 akenie+l 

460 IF ni=si OR xne+y2>=4 THEN 478 ELSE 418 

470 POKE add,ni: add=add*1: WEXT 

489 PRINT ja+1;"completed out of 128 runs taking” 

698 se=INTCCTIME=t)/380): mitINT(se/68): secese-(01 068) 
S0@ PRINT mis"eing “ssec: "secs" 
518 tot=tot+mi+(sec/é68): WEXT 

520 PRINT “end after about";INT(tot 
558 RETURN 


*“"sinutes” 


The listing works out the points for the Mandelbrot set within 
an area 128 by 128. Each point is worked out individually — this 
amounts to an incredible 16,384 points to calculate. Given that each 
calculation with all its stages takes approximately one second, it's 
easy to understand why Armold needs five hours to draw a single 
picture. 


Drawing the set 

The data for the Mandelbrot set is stored from memory location 
& 5000 (in decimal, 20480). If a point is within the set it will have a 
value 255. The nearer the point is to the set, the higher its value. 
Points of the same value will have identical colours assigned to 
them, rather like contours on a map. In theory there could be 256 
colours in the final display, but in practice too many colours would 
produce a confusing display. Not only that, the Amstrad can display 
a maximum of only 16 colours. So we compromise: ranges of 
numbers will have certain colours assigned to them. 


540 " ##0 Mandelbrot drawer ##* 

550 ' #08 Initialise #*1 

560 maxcols=15 

S7@ FOR nt=8 TO 255 

580 clini) =6 

990 WERT 

A008 ° ##@ Find eax and sin values #2 
410 add=65008 

620 FOR nazi TO 128e128 

650 bDS=PEEK(add): add=add+| 

660 chlbad Sector) 

650 WEXT 

660 ° ##* ASsign colours to values ### 
670 wa=(1280128-c40255) ) /maxcols 


FOB ctC255 
690 j i =a i pd 
ri L = I 
TOO t=O 
rie FOR ni=zQ Ti 
728 thettect(nt) 


P50 ci(ni)234 
r4Q IF tt>=smae(maxcolt-jf¢1) THEN jd=jt-1: 


[IF j2£¢1 THEN i221 


“nal 


a = B 
i = Ge i 
fi 2 

= 

fF 

J 


al 
Pal 
i 

— ri 


E TOO: FOR ak=8 TO 15:READ colZ:IWNK aZ,coli: WERT 


L 
ATA 8,4,1,2,9,12,18,25,26,15,6,7,16,18,13,26 


of oo =) “4 
+ & «0 Oo 
oo & o 
| 
a 


ue ta ma = 


kX%=@8 TO V2? 
aX=PEEK(Cadd): add=saddé1 
bleciteank) 
PLOT jted,k Le 
NEXT 

NEXT 


Df fs fa 
a i 
i 


a fo fo oo 
Pai 


Pi 


F i ry 


Lay i 
a =] CF 


oa 


eon Save Screen wes 
SAVE aS * “pic”, b, ECBBE, ESOG8 
RETURN 


END 


a aL a 
ma =a Bo wo 
me ea fs fa 


Now, while waiting for your screen to fill, has anyone written 
a short, fast machine-code version? Please send it in. 


AMSTRAD ACTION 19 





TYPE-INS 


Rally’s wrong 


| SLE hac i ee ie iy Un ier nately BEPC? 


hype Lut 1 


i 
=I re | 
= i alt "lk 


potted: the 


min 


addition and 
aisclose the 
now 
Liverpool 


Oil 


7 io i Fal don 


Subtraction in 


eek 
m4 hoe 


[ spill the beansto Amol. Once 
the COT ip il@T will INnStruct You to perform Several! opex anions on |! 
particular. Finally 


La 


mi 
the game unplayable 


Ba. 
bode 


miber 


it cites it 


in your mindaMMagic? No. See if you can work 


rir 


Luckily F Akinlawe 


MU Contains 


t to Tread 


th 


f 


eee 


| 
La rT 
Lhe | 


108 as=" 


Oressir 


Try 


ee 


the 


ch 


omputer will ask pou fo. think of a number rine: 


ave a 


auinor | 
makes 
The 


ri Lit 


Computer Wi 





and 20 
5, bey F 


it: 
ul] 


And the man. fo blame: Danie] Berman of 


1 hunete ja8e 

f oy Daniet Beradr 

7 9 Beetersaa bee i set fF 

a [Initiaiize 

568 MORE i: CLS: BORDER @ 

60 INK @,@: INK 1,24 AR , 1% [NE 3,26 

FO KEY 138, P°+CHRSC 15 

BO KEY DEF 63,1,158 

98 KEY 151, "N"4CHRS( 13) 

18 KEY DEF 46,1,151 

118 

120 PEN J: LOCATE 13,2: PRINT "NUMBER GAME 

158 PEN 2: OCATE 13,32: PRINU =="=++++-== 

1468 PEW 4: LOCATE &,5:PRINT THINK OF A NUMBER 
FROM 1 TO 28" 


150 FOR delay=1 TO 1008: WEXT delay 
162 GOSUB 458 
Ife LOCATE &,5: PEN 3 
180 PRINT"NOW DOUBLE YOUR NUMBER 
98 GOSUB 458 
OO RANDOMIZE TIME 
18 LET radnum=[NT(RNOeZe+T 
¢e2@ LOCATE 12,3: PEN 3 
50 PRINT"O.C. NOW ADD 
P2640 LOCATE 24,3: PEW 2: PRINT rr - 
258 GOSuUB 450 
P60 LOCATE ¢,3: PEN 3 
P70 PRINT FINE! NOW HALVE YOUR NURBER 
A GOSUB 458 
190 LOCATE 2,3: PEN 3 
300 PRINT" TAKE AWAY THE NUMBER THOUGHT OF: " 
F180 GOSUB 458 
370 LOCATE &,5: PEW 3 
S30 PRINT"YOUW ARE LEFT WITH 
OH LOCATE 25,3 PEN 2 PRINT rradnum/e 
20 Loop=@: WHILE lLoop=@ 
68 LOCATE 8.275 PEA 7 
17@ PRINT 'PRESS Y/N 
160 ATE 6,25 
790 INPUT (OU WANT AWOTHER GO: “,aS 
LOO IF aS="¥" THEN o=1 ELSE IF aS="N" THEN Et 
o=0: WENE 
L410 Tf 1 THEN RUN ELSE CALL &BBOG: MODE 2: CLS: EN 
b7Q ' 
£3 ¥ iP tT APYOore 
oe 
58 ATE f,29: PEN ¢ 
LAG PRINT 
47 @ whHILS [NEY S=o°"*= WEND 
4&2 ae 
690 RETURN 


20 AMSTRAD ACTION 








conver: 


AE Turner of Hazlemere, Bucks. | 


between 


Fahrenheit 


routine can quite easil 


Fr 
t a 
= 
y | 
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r ' 
L 
| - 
aL L 
any | 
i 5 
if? D2 
| 
L a 
12 Pe 
oir 
TE 
1 - 
wk I 
1 
hi 
4 6p 
C ' 
a 
h 
i 
= i 
1 
& 
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i 
a 
af 
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1 a 
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one 
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ra 
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rin 
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mt! 
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a} 


ha 


and Cemiorada 
be 


¥ 





10n. 





as Senhin a program that converts 


Tem peratures 


This 


1 Nik 


we 


iFees ¢ er 
| r T a sr 
eo = | | a i 
Scale 3 Etiant 
ry | "1 ‘ i Sa = i. -, em | 
ine of we fi ear Fe & HOHE 6 13 
1 3 oF "h 
Ate j 
iT 7 HFe@MA rERE NVERSTONG®” 
ATt 7 .# 
= wt 
7 eT “Fail: T AHEENHETT 1” 
LTE " 
= . 
+ 7 = 4 i | Pe ee a | 
im TAMAR CAA Se eA oe ere 
i T ra 
| i ‘ 
i 5 1 = THE 
" E E ie Ee a: we aL a 1 
r a. LT Pe TT a iB 
6 CE FE r 2 7ATd & | 
ci ; 4 
ria a at | ee ae 
1 = 
& " BoE ruT 7 = fy = 
= E AE EC ae | GAD nl 
i 
F 
a ‘a 1 
7 = 1 Lt E = FoF a i - 
B2 THEN IWK 1,6, ELSE IF c<=f-PHEn 
f LP fT {) ns af a 7 
‘ LOCATE 7,6: fa fe ih _ 
| a Se - = = = = 
1. EGREES CENTIGRADE 
i if a. =| i * 
mt sl cv, k aal 
‘ha ' 1 kT am i 
a ‘a ra 1 ac wi 1 “| i pe 7 
NT"DEGREES FAHRENHEIT 10 378 
. 1 ri ! t = £ = t * 
| a | = i 1 a ae-, 807 ; mee?) oe | 
z 1] a] & 2,5 
INT “Enter DEGREES FAHRENHEIT “; 
aT 4 
fai ja , La 
i a il i 1 1 = a = 7 - al 
T te A iL os : a Fr 7 <i Be HEA 
AT - 
uy . & BE tHE 7 
7 4 | 1 Ge a eee a 
oe ee ao 
7 ri er rer! k ¥ 
ul F Y. 4 FRI anni if O a - 
Ole a cre 8 | Lae = ,7e 
Ps Y i . i (A.A DE fol To 
fT = ? ang * 6 r i 
. 5 
4 1 Y ™ 
i 
a = 7 s = a 7 ‘7 r . 
5 a i = r ia ee Bo nel E “ 
, = = iF Ws = 1 ih Fl 
7 ' Po = PRT i ae 
ak ® « e-'% turA : 
iaRe TS r 2 im | Lae 
a a = = “sh 
3 fe / 3 “aE N sc 
a = a q - - * i = = 
aS 5 a nS} = k rE i bs A -o E ‘i 
-_ - = = Se # = 
es VR eS<>"N" THEN GOTO 400 


useful 


incorporat ed into Your OWN programs. 


Nea, 


Here's a handy routine from B Naff [if you're going fo put silly 
names on your communications, just remember that thats what will 
go on the cheque. Have you ined convincing your atte age yOu! 
name is Buo Navigator? —- Ed] of Horsham, West Sussex. It lets you 


Tt 


1" ayy 
al te 


should be 
thin 


hal 


le 


ters to 
Very 


YOur OWT 


screen 


ise when a character appears 


a. 


a 2 


el. wie = 


er 


Simple to tailor 


characters being printed 


DICegra itis 


alter 


ine 


Fil 


ie 


| 
wl 


Speed YOu choose and 


eH 


ing a typewriter effect. 
the routine and in ICOrporate 


noite the 
suit, Text that 


delay 


id 


you 


-eTWee»n 
wish 








| TYPE-INS 


| 


pe | 
mm 


appear must be held in Data statements from lines 140 onwards 180 | : PRINT TAB(6);"GET READY!” 
The final Data line must contain a single up-arrow (found on the 198 d=O@: FOR n=i TO RAND*SO8+500 
same key as the pound sign) e0@ IF INKEYS<>"" AND d=@ THEN PEN 2: PRINT "Wow. You must 


z= 
1 








have read my mind! Pity"™"I'm not allowing”"that.": d=1 
| Lharacter orinting a ta r ck 
: shee d 21 NEXT nz: IF d=1 THEN 338 
FJ | any / i) a = : 
nt i asco i oF P20 a=INT(RNDwh d+) 
4 Ametradgd Actiar AUGUST &/ aa meets aia ais aa, 
zs hi =f [ | : =| . 230 LOCATE Aly ee PRIAT H) CHRS(239+a): 
ld ' *Setup? a ale eae 
AH MODE CLS: RESTORE: ENV 1,175,1,/ neta : a . os | 
10 ' eR SPH ae ee — a SQ WHILE IWKEY(cCa))<@ AND TIME-t<3000: WEND 
rh ree aC trait and art , aie , aaa 
RE AD : os ‘ “fa 268 t=(TIME=-t)/308 
4 ica 6 3 “ 
5B FOR To LEN GAS) 270 PEN 2: PRIN 
a Leap ee ern | a 280 1F t>=18 THEN PRINT “Who forgot to press""the right 
ay | eR et ‘ M| ie a> 7 F oe - ‘ S ee -_ = a 1 ae ry 
F Sf i 2 et a oo! fo 
fe" #S5et dela nid Phe Found-etf # : 
re é elas ang rhe Souna-etTTect 90 PRIN ae te is “USING “#.#Hs5": 
Et FOR devay7ed a ‘a 7 FL , - ni c gig = e = i it 
Sn wevy dé so iF T*e, HEN FRIW What reflexes! 
a Po A 14S L 3 r 7 a = if a a T Fe i r r ry 
fag ‘FM Stas Las Fee Sonu S802 /10,1,1,7 SIG TF te=G.25 AND t<0.6 THEN PRINT “Passable. 
io heels bi. a | mabey 2 i ihn oi 20 11 0.4 THEN PRINT u'd be dead now 
: re Past P| a 7 ¥ 7 Fi if my - rh i i 
heated, ae et ern $30 PEN 3: PRINT: PRINT TAB(G);"Press any ke} 
7 READ aS RIE abcd saGOTO 50:, EMD $40 PRIN aec5) ry aga 
eed - na = a ; = Lal = i 
[2 Set pe, tent to Be Sent: (6-808 sereant Teo Fooag - Wi FAD 
. : . 370 CALL SEBES: WHILE IWNKEYS WEND 
148 he | Jc ee ee ee haye ; 1 ’ sent rT 
368 LLS & ae i! ov 
iow Ghaachetacter=sby-chareeter Ss Lowepro nt ng, reo oe — 
Jf ig we | 


Alter theyeipe held in tine 68, totetersine the 
at Wahehr chéraqgters) ate of inaeds wetace the text 
ish geopear in BATA starting 
Cepia t rom line 1407p "Your" Wie piag@ean up-arrow 
cc) Teesharas, gs kevounnn [he pound s79n -- If the 






i £5 ¢ oa) em rPLAe , Se ee ee enn hn nnn SSS SS 


Ever Wanted t@ Know how. fast you are af slinging a qun? Here's This program by,Martin Packer of Greenford, Middlesex, will 
your chance, Kevin Stafferton of Spinney Hill, Northampton, has Piace the contentsof a disk catalogue into Basic variables. Ideal for 
WTitlfen a program that tests your Teaction Speed. Incorporating into*your own programs so you can keep track of the 
The program will display one@ofthe four directional arrows disk's characteristics. 
You musi move the joystick or press the cursor key corresponding To gefthe fang of the routine, run it several times with a disk 
fo this arrow, The computer times you and pris your speed with in the drive. Alter a few seconds, variable names, and their contents, 
sarcastic remarks. will appear on screen. Using it in your own listing shouldn't be too 
As the program stands jf uses the cursor keys. To use a joystick, hard. Once you have the variables assigned, you can use them, say, 
remove line 40 and de-REM (take -ourihe command word “REM” to build up a database containing all relevant information on your 
or the starting apostropiie (.’) which means:the same thing - from) disks 
line 45, The key numbers are [ek in, lie 40, If you wish to use Sc ars 
other key combinations lookrat the batk.of the user guide or on og. 


y Ag = FC eer 
the 6128¢ case’: 1 contais/allithe key mimbers. Line 40 contains SaehaieaLih ee ee 
\)=2. This means the Key to move left is key number 0, which SNE ae MET URS ira ee 
. : F L i a Pe 
happens to be (ye left-arrow character. If you-wish this.to be Z then how Gaile ack a bys ay i 
replace it with c(1)<77.The same,applies for the, other keys. 4G DIM name$(63).tyoe$ (63) ci 2e€8h3) 


By the way, 4 hotuip? note the-way Kevin.forces a new line in : : ‘install machine-code Bt eager 
‘ ! I ' tr , q th a he TI &™ a[*) Ta et) Fe 
a Print statement — lke ine 180. bytyping two quotemarks im arow 


BQ FOR Baged BBQ38: READPcCod|etsPOKE 1B,codeX:NEXT 

}  ReypOmnE reaction tester 7G ‘get CAS_CATALOG tf in stone 
> ' by Kevin Seafterton B@ CALL &8008 
3 ' Amstrad Action Auqus® -196/ iid Moo 
1g ' Set up 20 ‘star file entries is at BBS4T 

BON BREAK GOSUB 3/8 SG memi=e85sF 
30 MODE O: BORDER O: INK @ AS -TNK 1824 Ker, 2e: OY GriveseCHRS(PEEKR(ESS41)): “get drive name 

INK 3,6: INK 4,26 150 ‘get user number - 2 digits 

12 DIM et 4) eB: ¢e(2)22 PeeLi Te cc Ce 160 uUS@rS=CHRSLTPEERL BB RG9) J #CHRS (PEEK (RBB4A)) 
15" OM Oo: cbdperé: cl2)s Pieces eee er 'o ; YO TO 635: "f ess file names 

OB LOCATE 6,2: PEN 1: PRINT "KEYEOARD” iB@ ‘check for out of files 
i CATE 6,4: PEN 2: PRINT “REACTION” 9G an=PEEK( mea. ): TF at=hD THEN fileszeik: GOTO Uae 
a ATE 6,6: PEN 3: PRINT “ TESTER" 200 ‘get name 
Bu . TO 2000; WEXT nr BP FOR =men. TO menace 
92 CLS ATE 2,2: PEN 1: PRINT “Watch th pace 0 nanes =nameS +CHASCPEEKCG2)): NEM 
ipa WinooW A190) edal PAPER #1,4 PEW 0 = A % 

if WINDOW - BU, Ibpe2 q'. - Rea. FY nen (pedi | yoes( ia) 

B * Insti 1 HOS( PEER 

) PEN PRINT An af iW apoed a ace yb HEX! Je TT Pee 

it ave appropiate” "direction key 60 "g : 
yuickly as y in io FOR sme m memi+ 

& id EW PRINT PRIN TABUG): Pre 4 xt A 4 . a5 ‘CHRSCPEER } J NEXT 

) PRIW i AB fF): tfart™ 90 sen sen .+é 

10 CALL &B883 §: WHILE | $= SSINKEYS: WEND o WEF 

fo ' Ma orogram ag ‘4 Maxitoum 


AMSTRAD ACTION 2] 


TYPE-INS 


$26 Tilesi=64 4 " by Stuart Lockey 
330 ‘get free space on disk 5 " Amstrad Action August 87 
340 peni=memi+2: FOR jtememt TO meni+3 18 loc=HIMEM-260 
558 freeS=freeS+CHRS(PEEK(C}2)): NEXT 4% 22 IF Loc¢32968 THEN PRINT"Memory too low": END 
360 ‘print values of variables 30 MEMORY Loc-1 
378 PRINT“user$S holds *“;user$;""" 60 LOAD"coder.bin",loc 
338 PRINT"drives holds "“;drived;"' 36 DATA a,1,6,9,¢,17,¢,40,a,54,8,58,38,62,¢,65,¢,69,6,/72, 
3978 PRINT"nusber of files in files= is “;filesi b,76,d,79,¢,94,e,188,¢c,122,¢,138,c,135,c,159,¢,142,¢, 
408 FOR 14°08 TO filest-1 i67,¢,151,¢,1546,¢,158,¢,162,4a,165,8,178,6,1746,6,178 
S19 PRINT’ names ("302") holds "":nameS(if)-"'" 68 FOR j=1 TO 28 
428 PRINT “typeS(":it:") holds de cepa '@ READ af,r 
438 PRINT sizes(":i2f:") holds "":sizeS¢i fo IF a$="a" THEN v=ioc+ 196 
S48 WEXT 15 98 IF aS="b" THEN veloc4#l92 
458 PRINT"freeS holds "";:frees;"' 128 IF a$="c" THEN weloc+T9 
460 DATA €21,809,8b6d,011,828,880,801,803 118 IF aS="d" THEN v=loc4192 
S70 DATA EOO,8ed,060,821,82b,880,811,809 120 IF aS="e" THEN v=loc+19¢ 
488 DATA bbd,601,803,800,£e0,860,811,839 130 GOSUB 218 ; 
490 DATA €86,6c0,69b,8bc,621,628,080 ,011 148 POKE loc+r,VAL(\ oS) 
908 DATA So9,6bd,601,805 ,£00 ged ,6b8,8¢9 158 POKE locér+1,VAL(hi$) 
318 DATA EOE,600,800,0¢3,62¢,880, se ,637 168 NEXT 
528 DATA ESO E77 025,622,057 ,088,0¢c9 ,639 ,g88 17/2 MEMORY GCSFFF 
180 MODE 
196 PRINT"To expand p ure load compact s¢treen at 
4008, then CALL "; 
175 expand= 
200 PRINT: PRINT: STOP 
fig vS=HELS 
228 IF LEN(vS)=3 THEN vS="@"+w3 
250 his="G" +R 0S(v$,1,2) 
248 LoS="2"+M10S(vS,3,2 
230 RETURN 





If you have played with Rainbird’s Advanced OCP Art Studio, you'll 
know that the picture can be compressed before saving. Unfortu- 
nately there is no way of decompressing these pictures from Basic 
- a pity as they take up less than half the ram-space of conventional 
screens. 

Stuart Lockey of Weybndge, Surrey, has come up with the 
answer. a program to expand the compressed screens. There are 
two programs. The first, Writer, writes and saves the code to do 
the expanding. Run the second isting which loads the code as huign T Lea of St Helens, Merseyside, has submitted a listing that solves 
in memory as possible. It also stores the Call address in a variable, the problem of printing pound (£) and hash (*). The two characters 
expand. All you have to do is load the compressed picture at &4000 have to share Ascii code 35. If you send a listing to the printer 
and CALL expand containing both, either the hashes will come out as pounds or 
vice-versa, depending what country youre set for. 

The listing uses standard Epson codes and works with printers 
having a choice of US and UE character sets. Make sure you have 
the dip-switches set to ihe UE lantuage set. The routine checks 





writer 
2 ' for pictures compressed using Advanced OCP Art Studio 
5 * By Stuart Lockey 


: » Amstrad Ac sp ~ ae ey what is sent to the printer. If-a‘hash sign needs printing then T's 
ts ae Et TBR TO 41186 program will switch to the US character’ set..prinfthe hash and 
Et cAv gw 


revert to the UR set 
You can use this routine om within Tasword (and from Frotext, 
but its Setprint functionalréady takes-care of the problem) — and 


$B POKE | ,VALC™E"+a$) 
LB azta+VAL("B£"+a$) 


8 NEXT of course from Basic. 
6@ IF a=17679 THEN SAVE“coder.bin",b,41088,187 ELSE 
MODE 1: PRINT“Qata error": STOP | " Hash/pound oAPnting, ture 
70 MODE 1: PRINT"Code saved" ce" by | Lea 
gO END 5 ' Amstrad Action Awousg?/ 8? 
9@ DATA 21,88,A1,36,0,23,36,C0,21,8A,A1,36,0,23,36,48 10 heHIMER- B96 SOM ERGR TON: gheck=6 
100 DATA 21,B8C,A1,36,8,23,36,48,23,36,0,23,36,8,23,36 éO FOR addr=he1] 170 Heego? READ bytes: -by feeVaAL(’ es’ +byted) 
118 DATA €, eH 56,8, pe 0,2A,8C,A1,56,36,40,BA,28,20 28 POKE addr byte: chert =checktby te? -NEAT addr 
178 OATA 3E,1,B8A,28,51,2A,88,A1,72,2A,88,A1,23,22,88,A1 LQ IF check<>§350C-7THEFN@PRINT EFror an DAIA": END 
13@ DATA 2A,BC,A1,23,22,BC,A1,2A,BA,A1,28,22,BA,A1,21,88 5@ CALL n+l: SPOR ome TOeeeSlers sé 
140 DATA A1,3€,0,BE,28, 2,18,CF,2B,BE C8, 18,CA,21,8C,A1 60 PRINT#st Sprint, Faed Pusyabot sen": WEXT st 
158 DATA 4E,23,46,21,C8,A1,71,23,78,3,4,57,3£,6A0,5A,28 re 
168 DATA C4&,3,A,57,3€,48,8A,20,80,2A,8C,A1,23,23 ,23 423 B@ DATA 21,e1,e9,22,30,08,7), ee pbeoel,70,08,09,5¢,23,56 
17@ DATA 23,22,8¢ A118, ,C8,24,BC ,A123,22,BC,A1,24,Bt A Tee DATA 23,7a,b3,26, pe5,e86, ay, e5, 523,56, eb, ef, eb,e! 
186 DATA 7E,57,2A,80,A1,25,22,8C,A1,24,8C,A1,46,2A,80, 128 DATA 13,23,72,01,18,e7,3a,2b,bd,2a, ec,bd,32,21, OB ,c2 
199 DATA 23,22,B80,A1,2A,B88,A1,f0,25,c¢,88,A1,15,2A,B4, 140 DATA 52,00,3¢,c3,21,4¢,80,32,26,60,22,2¢,60,3a,71,bd 
200 DATA 28,22,8A,A1,36,0,B04,20,E8,18,93 169 DATA ah ald abe sat hacks 08, pe pl hat ger bibs 
180 DATA ba, 22,2,60,c9,32,76,08,00,08,88, 3a,/7b, 88, 
1° Picture expander O08 DATA 23,20,14,11,83,21,74 ,28,06, By chte cd? 1,88, - 
2?" using code produced with Writer 228 DATA fa,23,c1,18,f5,e1,c9,71,08,00,08,1b,52,00,25,16 
3 ' once run, the variable expand will hold the address 240 DATA 52,05,4,00,26,08,29,00,2¢,08,5¢,08,40,08,55,00 
call to expand a compressed picture loaded at 84000 260 DATA 36,00,5¢ ,00,66,00,00 00,00 


22 AMSTRAD ACTION 


From NEMESIS (The Orginal Meddlers) 
BONZO SUPER MEDDLER (FOR ANY CPC) 
THE prensa fe rath TO DISC utility 


[he cevastatir 
BONZO's 
THE FACTS 


HACK PACK 
BONZO SUPER MEDOLER # GUARANTEED TO TRANSFER MORE GAMES THAN ANY 
OTHER PROGAAM: THE FIRST PERSON TO FIND A MORE SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM 
WILL RECEIVE THRICE THEIR MONEY BACK! 
Sounds larmiar? BONZO akways could transite: move — FACT 
BONTO SUPER MEDOLER will vareler thoulfands", but WE include full details of how 
9 transler OVer 400 TOP GAMES 


MORE FACTS 
BONZO SUPER MEDDLER does NOT use a masswe “host” program to run thee 17 ars barred 
ames. ALL transiges “stand alone 

ONZO uses LESS memory, transfers MORE, COSTS LESS and gives REAL 


support to eee 
Weil are ot old OP disc in part exhange! SM tapes upgraded to 
BSM+HA be DISC el 3 00 


(sand inlay) 


BSM & HACKPACK DISC £11.50. Only — 


“@QD_ BONZO'S DOO - DAH 
“The is (he beet (we seen ina long wie... | racommend a 
Amstrad Action June ‘a7 


reas BIGBONZO FORMAT 


A REALLY USABLE 203K per SIDE FORMAT, complete seth the essential drsc fie transier 
laclty wethOul intating restnctond — ties of over 47% READILY transter between any ma of 
FORMATS, FORMATS RAPIDLY inciuding all standard 

A “NOTHING HIDDEN FULL CATALOGUE, COMPLETE DIRECTORY EDITOR 
TRACK/SECTOR EDITOR - in HEX o ASCH (A FULL SECTOR o DIRECTORY displayed 
to ihe screen, with easy EDIT moda} 

FILE LOCATIONS by TRACK/SECTOR, RAPID DISC SEARCH - HEX-ASCII 

A WIDE RANGING DISC to DISC COPIER, PRINTER OUTPUT etc. etc 
ALL WORK ON NGRIMAL ENLARGED, AND most “tunny” formats 

FULL USE OF DAIVE A/G where tied — 15 problem with one 


MANY UNIQUE FEATURES supoted on DISC £11.50 
EEE ETE ELLE 


BONZO CLONE ARRANGER - tr ‘wee misor- 
STILL AVAILABLE, AUTO DISCTAPE lor acchives - easy recovery. RECOVER that inte 
used desc, and store the content on tape! Fast format, excellerd (HSC -Di6C tacilty 
quipped on tape, easy transla io dec pus 6.00 (Lage F 
ALL WITH FUL INSTRUCTIONS We gee FULL ater Rk GUppe and a regula: KE WS ETTER 
Oversan peaks acd (1 OO wi toll ORIDERS wth cheque'postal, sent by niturn post: 

NEMESIS (AA) 
10 Carlow Road, Ringstead, Kettering, Northants NN14 4DW. 


| QUALITAS offers superb NEAR-LETTER QUALITY in a choice of 
five business fonts, even on ordinary printers! Professional features 
include justification with equal spaces between words, proportional 
character widths, and double height, double-width, condensed 

| emphasized, subscript, superscript and underlined characters. A font 

|| editor is included so you can modify fonts or even create your own! || 
Works with all printers with quadruple-density graphics which are 
compatible with the Epson RAX-80, including tha Amstrad DMP2000, 
Brother M-1009, Canon PW1080A, Citizen 120D, Epson FX/RX/LX, || 
Kaga-Taxan KP810, Panasonic KXP1091, Smith-Corona D200 and |) 
Star Gemini 10X. Can work in 86-bit mode using 8-bit printer port for |) 
even better results. For Amsword/Tasword 464, 464-D, 6128 and |: 
Protext (disc or rom), and other programs (@g Masterfile IIl) which allow | 
approx 6.5k memory to be reserved. Qualitas 464 £9.95 (tape), | 
£12.95 (disc). (Tasword 6128 version included on disc only.) More 
fonts will be available soon as add-on font packs, including decorative, 
foreign-language and italic styles. 


1) TASPRO justifies ines with equal spaces between words, giving | 
|} your documents a superor appearance. Daisywheel printers | 
supported in both fixed-pitch and proportional modes include the) 

Brother HA-15, DaisyStep 2000, Juki 6100, Quen-Data DWP1120_ 

and Uchida DWX-305. Most Epson-compatible dot-matrix printers are 

| supported in fixed-pitch modes (and some in proportional but we | 
recommend Qualitas for this). For Amsword/Tasword 464, 464-D and 

6128, Protext (disc or rom) and other word processors which allow 

1.5k of memory to be reserved. (HIMEM upon power-up must be || 
above 41708 if Tasword 6128 is being used.) Taspro 464 £7.95 

(tape), £10.95 (disc). 


Please specitly your set-up (including printer) when ordering. Fast mail-order 
(UK post free, Europe add £1, elsewhere add £2 airmail) with 14-day “full refund | 
if not entirely satisfied” guarantee (Statutory nights unaffected). Trade enquires | 


acai 

) Seven Stars Publishing, Dept B, 
34 Squirrel Rise, Marlow, Bucks SL7 JPN. 
Tel: 06284 3445. 





ELECON 





YSTEMS 


AMRAM-2 
Here at last AMRAM-2!! 
We read the reviews and listened to what our customers said 
they would like 
Battery Back-up? — YES WE'VE BATTERY SACKED IT UP! 
ROM Slots? — YES WE'VE PUT FOUR ROM SLOTS ON! 
More space? — YES WE'VE PUT A MASSIVE 32K 
[in two 16K banks) ON IT! 
Will we still be able to use the AMRAM? — YES THE AMRAM WILL 
PLUG INTO THE AMRAM-2 NO PROBLEM! 
Can it do everything the AMRAM can? — YES!IT DOES 
EVERYTHING THAT THE AMRAM DOES AND MORE! 
Can you buffer the INPUTS and OUTPUTS on the Expansion port? 
—- YES WE'VE DONE THAT AS WELL! 
CAN YOU SELL IT FOR LESS THAN £100.00? — 
YES IT'S ONLY £79.95 Comes COMPLETE with ALL software, 
ready to PLUG IN AND GO!!! 
Including postage and packing. 
Fully compatible with the 464/664/6128 

When it's ready can we trade our AMRAM in? YES—send us your 

old AMRAM and we'll send you an AMAAM-2 for £55.00 


AMRAM 
Don't worry the AMRAM IS STILL AVAILABLE! 
Comes COMPLETE with ALL software, ready to PLUG IN AND GO!!! 
Fully compatible with the 464/664/6128 
£39.95 including postage and packing. 


DO A MILLION WITH THE MEGADRIVE!!! 
1 MEGABYTE FOR LESS THAN A POUND 
The MEGADRIVE — NOW EVEN BIGGER! 
‘The MEGADRIVE is a different breed of drive’ ‘MEGADARIVE is most 
certainly a well thought-out product: it delivers!!" 
— Amstrad Action May 1987 
The MEGADRIVE is now available in two formats — 

5 va" cased and power supplied at £199.95 
3%" cased and power supplied at £179.95 
The MEGADRIVE gives you a TRUE 1 MEGABYTE of unformatted 
capacity on the disc, and when formatted has a capacity of 706 or 
796K under AMSDOS, CP/M + with the option of 128 or 256 directory 
entries. With CP/M 2.2 the capacity is 760K. Others may make vague 
promises but WE DELIVER. 

The MEGADRIVE piugs into the second drive port on the CPC range of 
computers and after running the software on power-up, i totally 
transparent to the user. You Can run most programmes from it just like a 
normal 3” second drive, it also gives you intelligent SILICON DISC 
support from CP/M 
Both the 5'4" and the 3%" version feature a TOP QUALITY mechanism 
made by NEC and are fully power supphed and beautifully cased in 
SOLID STEEL, BUILT TO LAST and is fully quaranteed for 12 montns 
The MEGADAIVE is available from stock NOW. 

Suitable 5\4" discs are available from us at £7.90 per 10 
Suitable 32" discs are available from us at £24.00 per 10 

| Please add £1.00 p + p on discs. 


AMDRIVE 
Still the best selling 3" Second disc drive for the 464/664/6128 
| Features a superb 3° disc mechanism, housed in our own hi-tech case, 
| complete with separate hide-away power supply. Supplied with ALL 
| leads. COMPLETE, ready to PLUG IN AND GO!!!! 
| £79.95 including postage and packing 
| ALL SILICON SYSTEMS products carry a full 12 months guarantee. 
Please state which computer you have when ordering the 
AMDARIVE or MEGADRIVE. 


TRAFFORD TECHNOLOGY CENTRE 


43 ELSINORE ROAD, MANCHESTER 
Mi6 OWG. TEL: 061-848 8959 





Patching Wordstar 


[ use Wordstar on a 61268 for my job as a correspondence tutor. | 
find it ideal. bar one litthé point. I have to use single sheets of headed 
paper in my job, and consequently every time | print | have to run 
through many tedious questions, selecting default on all but the last 
Pause at end of page?” 

Thinking I could erase this hassle from my life, if I could change 
the default on that queshon from no to yes, I wrote to MicroPro to 
ask if this was possible. I recerved the following reply: 

You can default the answer to yes by changing the value from 
00 to FF at locanon O3CD in WS.COM by using any debugger (DDT), 
or by using label patch method, again changing the value from 00 
to FF at label PODBLEK +3." 

Now, [| am very grateful for this information, but unfortunately 
know litth about computers, and its double-dutch to me. Can you 
help? 
lan Mackean 
London 


Unfortunately our Wordstar sefup file has gone walkies: I couldn’? 
iy patching Wordstar using the label-patch method. Instead I used 
DDT (Dynamic Debbuging Tool), wiich is on the CPM system disk 
Follow the method below and you shouldnt nim into any problems 
boot up your CPM system disk 
when the 4> prompt appears. type 
ype 510 then Aeturn 

mace your Wordstar disk in fhe drive 

Woe rw$.CO* af ihe * prompt, followed by a Return 

record the values displayed under MSZE and PC 

ype b. Return 

enfer FF, Xefurn 

hoid the Control key while you type { 

Savename prompt enfer w5.CO™, Herurn 

ipe ie value that was displayed under PC when asked, press 
Return 

@ type value that was displayed under MSZE, Return 

@ wipe brow: is all ove 


SAVE followed by Return 


5 Pa 
al fj if a 


Music on the 6128 

| would like to order your book Making Music on the Amstrad CPC’ 
fo4d and 664, but my son has a 6128. Although mest programs seem 
to work, | would hike to know if this book can be used for a 6128 
Mrs Tessa Robson 

Braintree, Essex 


wie Li arijes Versions of ‘te he 
Ferry t res rrirt} Pete td Pre Figs F i Pe F mi Fs Ris iar rr u J r tat Fy raf 
AL LF eae a | b cié ta i da:* iT te en IBs pr fi aA yigurky ree ies roy Fr " Cig Wh fii 
QTHeay anyiung woitien for a 664 will work on a 6/26 


: ale fo fhe b/25 


work a bed 


SO, Yes. fhe book appl 


24 AMSTRAD ACTION 


Where has it gone? 

Could you explain why. after 7 J 
loading several blocks from tape and ‘Y 
getting a read error, | cannot list or use 

any of the loaded blocks 

Surely these blocks were loaded into store 
as they were read in. Where have they gone? 
G Smith 

Sandy, Beds. 


When you load a program the first block gets placed 
ina buffer — an area high in memory. If the block loaded ; 
succesfully, it will move down fo its correct resting place. : “ 
Each successive biock loaded will go straight to its entry 3 
posinon. [f you press the Escape key or reading fails during a 

load operation, youl! be returned to the Ready prompt. However 
the loaded data is still in memory. 

The reason you cant fist the program (assuming ifs Basic) is 
that wo has an important part missing: the very first byte. This byte 
remains in the buffer until the complete program has succesfully 
loaded, The firmware then moves this value down, and you have a 
stable program. its locanon is &1/U — the start of Basic. You can 
experiment with a program you know joads: load if, list it (to make 
sure is present) and then POXE 6170, @. The Basic listing has now 
disappeared 

Say you have part-loaded a program. You can list whatever's 


present by enfenng the following commands im direct mode 


, P 
Merging pepaelep a. Bart 

[am writing a swile of programs in Basic on my 6128 to solve various 
equations in engineering. The program has many 605U8s to the 
roumnes. However, as I constantly update certain sub 
routines, [ find it a chore to load the complete program and save it 
out when [ve finished enhancing it. Is « possible to save subroutines 
separately and merge them together when required? 

JH Shaw 

Wargrave, Berkshire 


Various 


ne simplest way of doing this is fo have one main program thal 
contains all the mundane parts - such as setting up colours, mode 
and so on. Within tus program you could fave several MERGE 
commands for each of the subroutines. You must fake grea! care 
(hat none of (he subroutines fave overlapping line numbers, and 
fhat none of them will overwrite part of the mam program. If you 
are using a disk system you'll have to save the subroutines as Ascii 
a er ee | 

For example, your main program could look something iike this 


Hanging on the telephone 


What is a modem? Is it a little box that plugs your computer into 
the phone system’ What exactly does tt do’ How does tf work? 
Where can ! get one? 

D Yorks 

Barnsley, Yorkshire 


Yes, 0 is a device that lets compuiers (talk fo one another using (he 
felephone network. The word “modem comes from the first 
syllables of modulate and demodulate. The computer s digital output 

ws ons and offs or \s and Os - must be added onfo a carrier wave 









(modulated) before if can be 
rransmitted as a sound. And at 
ihe other end the signal must 

be separated again from the 

carner (demodulated) 
Besides communicating direct with a 
friend's computer, you can use a modem fo 
link into huge public databases such as Brinsh 
Telecoms Micronet (part of Prestel) or its 
more sophisticated electronic-mail network 
Telecom Gold. You can also dial info dozens of free 
“‘bullein boards operafed Dy enthusiasts. 
Subscribe fo Preste! for a year and they give you a 
modem, albert a one-speed job. Conversely, various modem 
manufacturers throw in an e-mail subscription if you buy their gear 
We reviewed the Linnet modem from Pace Micro Technology in 
AA 21; the Nightingale (also from Pace, but sold under an Amstrad 
badge as weil!) was mentioned in AA /6 and & 
Don't forget that you also need a serial (RS232) interface 
between the computer and the modem, and software such as 
Commstar to control it, Some modem packages include ali this 





Setting up Setup 

| think the Setup file under CPM 2.2 is one of the most useful, but 
probably one of the most underused due to lack of documentation 
| would like to know how to select border, ink. mode and so on 
when altering the string sign-on option 

Steven Dunn 

Cookham, Berks Micronet 919 994 911 


Control characters are responsibje for cursor positioning, mode, 

ink and so on when using Setup. The way you access control 

characters for the string sign-on option jis not immediately obvious. 
| Look at the back of the User Instructions; there is a section telling 
whar functions certain contro! characters have. 

To select a control character under Setup you must first type 
up-arrow (° )— this shares a key with the pound sign (£). Then comes 
the code for the control character. So control code 0 is represented 
under Setup as ‘3, contro] code ] happens to be | A, control code 
a is 


'B, and so on. 
Here are some of the more useful control codes and how they 
are represented under Setup: 

















ff you want a Mode ! display, with border and paper colours 
set to black and ink colour set to white when you boot CPM. you 
would need fo alter the string sign-on to read *\@aa'\1272"° Jaa’ bi 
Here is a rundown of what the first five characters do: The 
up-arrow fei fhe system a control character is fo follow: the 


PROGRAMMING 





backslash translates to contro] character 28, meaning set the inks. 
Three parameters must follow this contro! character. The first (in 
tus case, zero) indicates the pen that is to be altered: the next two 
characters tell the system which colours are to be used - 4 stands 
for colour 0 (and A would be colour |, B colour 2 etc). Experiment. 
It isnt foo complicated once you get the gist of things 















Serial printer and Mini Office 

My computer setup consists of a 464 with DI] disk drive and a 
serial 8056 printer. To use the printer I need to run a small patch 
file. |] have no trouble using Amsword and the printer. Problems 
occur when using Mini Office If (on disk) and the printer: Min Office | 
iT just doesn't load with the patch in memory. Any clues? 
A Sheldon 

Kirkstead, Nottingham 

















































You didnt state how long ago you purchased Mini Office IL The 
first version Nad several bugs. The version J tned fas options 
allowing select a serial printer. [ suggest you contac! 
Database Software and demand an upgrade 


you fo 


No place for Maxam 
After saving some time for the cartridge version of Maxam, | finda 
Arnor has discontinued this particular setup. It looks as though [ll 
have to buy the rom version and a rom board instead. | dont expect 
to purchase any other roms, so buying a rom board seems rather 
excessive. Any ideas? 
Nirs L Johnson 
Hyndford, Lanark 
niotek Design, a company based in Northamptonshire, sells a cased 
rom card for £15.95 or uncased for £/2.50. You can contact them on 
(0536) 20 1743. This is the cheapest rom board I know of Add the 
price of Maxam on rom and the rom-card - youll! find the price 1s 
simular to Maxam on cartnriage 

Your other alternative is to buy Maxam on cassette or disk 
the problem with this setup is you don't have the whole CPC memory | 
af your disposal! 


Keep the drive whirring 
Please could you tell me if there is a routine that will keep the 
disk-drive motor spinning for a set or indefinite time? 


SP King 
Feltham, Middlesex 
Whar you need is T gFBTE, This will cause the drive fo whirt 


non-siap AN T BFere P CG wil sfop re drive spinrumng 


Curious to know. though. why youd want to do if. Aiso curious 
fo know your name: | somenmes think programmers take codé [00 
personally. Who are all these assembled bods G. JH, P. D and A 
anyway. SP? 


Having acquired an Amstrad 6125 after two years of using a 
Spectrum-, | am regretting the loss of many decent Speccy 
programs. Several weeks after buying the 6128 a package arrived 
from Infocom with, among other literature, a catalogue of programs 
Now, was I dreaming or was there a utility advertised thal 
iransferred Spectrum programs to run on an Amstrad? 

[ have been trying without success to find Infocom’'s address 
Can you help? 
Ken Tyhurst 
Bnghton, Sussex 


Has anyone else heard of this program? | have heard rumours about 
wnaged fo trace its ongin. Can anyone help? | 
Such a ufiity is fuahly unlikely to be from Infocom, which is an 
American company very few Spectra there. (Infocom games are 
distributed in the UK by Activision.) 


W. buf have never n 













AMSTRAD ACTION 25 





SERIOUS SOFTWARE 





aster Blaster 





Siren, true to name, lures our noise-loving Richard Monteiro 


Sound Blaster 


Add two quality car speakers, a length of wire and a cigarette- 
packel-size box together, and what do you get? You have the latest 
gadget from Siren Software, the Sound Blaster. In the past Siren has 
put all its energy into utility software - this hardware add-on comes 
a8 a surprise. 

The Sound Biaster, of the same genre as Maestro from 
Vanguard Leisure, is a system thal gives your computer true stereo 
output. Two beefy three-way speakers (containing a 3-inch woofer, 
a 2inch midrange and a tweeter) capable of 20 watts each are 
plugged into a tiny amplifier. From the amplifier come three leads 
one goes into the CPC's stereo port, the other into its socket markec 
Sv DC, and the third connects to the monitor's power cable. 

Once everythings plugged in load your noisiest game, sit back 
and listen. What? You can't hear anything? Well, turn up the volume 
controls. There are two controls so you can correctly balance the 

The sound quality is superb. [tf adds much to games, makina 
them atmospheric and all the more enjoyable. You won't be able tc 
blow the roof off: the amp can deliver only 2 watts. This is loud 
enough, mind, especially in the confinement of your 150m. 

A pair of stereo headphones is supplied — “for a jimited penod |, 
Siren’s introductory offer. Plug the phones into the amp for persona! 
listening or to avoid annoying the neighbours A ruce touch if the 
pair of red LEDs that giow when the Blaster is plugged into your 
computer. 

Tne sound Biasier i a marvellous addition to your computer: 
il 1s not Expensive compared to the competition, does a better job 
looks impressive and endows your machine with a mean sound 

AA 


New in the 


We play with a fresh suite of disk utilities 


Supadisc 


Stradsolt, £5.99 disk only 


A company new to the CPC market. Stradsoft, has released its first 
product, Supadisc. First impressions are favourable. But is there 
room in the market — already flooded by Oddjob, Locksmuth Pius, 
Master Disc, Bonzo Doo Dah etc — for another disk utility package’ 

Supadisc offers several useful utilines: 
Directory Editor iets you edit the catalocue track of any disk 
Sector Editor will alter the contents of disk sectors, including those 
with non-standard formats 
Quick Formatter will format disks to CPM. data or TAM format 
Large Formatter formats Gisks in @ Standard way, but gives |3k 
extra storace on each disk. 
Archiver caves all the disk contents to cassette. 
Disk Backup iets you copy disks inclnding those formatted by 
Protection Remover will enable you to load Basic files saved with 
the ,? option. 
File Information gives an extended cataloque of either tape or disk 
files. 
Turbo Disk speeds up drive operation. 
View File gives a hex or Ascu dump of any specified ile. 

The presentation of Supadisc is pleasing. When you choose 
from the menu, Supadisc offers to display instructions 


26 AMSTRAD ACTION Digg that therkey beat 


on either 














A Sound Waster speaker 
¥ 


Siren Soltware 7 © 
1 Gatord Rosa, Mancheece: 


G 0 0 OD N E— W 5S (2 eet 

B The two quality speakers are 
capable of lots of lovely noise 

@ Cheaper and better than the rest. 

@ Headphones included tree (at 


present) 


@ Amplifier can put out only two 
watts per channel. 


before loading your option. You can even adimp 
the complete operaling instructions to printer in one fell swoop 

Have you used other programs that give an incpessedecapacity 
iormat? If you have you'll understand the problems of copyimg files 
fo and trom standard formats. Supa@isc eradiGatésetis hassle: it 
formats the disk im the standard way,\but gives an extra lak of 
storage by formatting 43 tracks instead of40. Then all youneed do 
is a Couple of pokes at the beginning of a Save session. I's the most 
trouble-free method I've encountered 

Alihough many GPC users will already faye disk wfilities, 
Supadises features are done exceedingly well —“@nd more to the 
pom, they Work correctly. If you haven't got a package.of this type, 


ce = aa a ae r 
th [eeil ie DLE 


ths is probabiy your best beet AA 
Srradsamalt 


oT Healey Creecens, L- 








Goob NEw sS 


A OD ne 


| i Not possible to go back to main 
menu alter using many options. 

| @ Similar products already on the 
market. 


| @ Friendlier than most utility 
software. 
@ instructions can be sent to 
printer 
@ Clever way of increasing disk 
capacity 





THE NEVV AMX IVIK. IILMOUSE. 














TRAP ONE SOON. 


ee a aol 
i 


ART AND CONTROL 


The MK II) AMX Mouse is a product of Swiss precision and the result of a world-wide search to find a worthy 








STOP PRESS 


successor to the AMX Mouse MK II. 





The new Mouse has been specially chosen-to be the perfect partner to the ever expanding range of AMX software. 
The unique patented design includes high resolution 0.P!. and superior ball technology to ensure that contact between the Mouse and the surface ss 


constant at all times. There's a new shape too, that fits comfortably in the hand. 
Join the great “Mouse-Swap" Part exchange your oid Mouse for the new MK II! for only £29.99. 


= i es : —=— 


AMX MOUSE MK Ill PLUS ART ANDO CONTROL, 
TAPE AND 3” DISC, 


Acknowledged as the most sophisticated yet easy 10 use pail package 
available for the Amstrad CPC, it's no wonder over 70,000 have already been sald 
AMX Art features include cul, copy, paint, plus many, many more such 

as fantastic spray and zoom facilities. The package also includes AMX contro! 
which enables you 10 create a Mouse environment in your Own programs 
Available for Amstrad CPC 464, 664, 6176. Please state which version is required 
when ordering 


“MAX 3" DISC £19.99 


MAX provides an easy to use graphic based front end to your computer's disc 


filing system including a sh etents set of 
disc management operations : : 
copying, deleting and re-noiting, Also included 
are disc utilities such as sector editing, 
and faster tracking, You can aise run programs 

from within AMX. Available for Amstrad CPC, 
464, 664, 6128. Please state which version is 

| required when ordenng. 


There is also a growing list tol AMX suppor software including: AMX 30 icon {3 (3 
9.99 Unity software for the eigoa art program supped with AMX Mouse. A Mouse and Interface 
99 direct from AMS using the order form enclosed in MAX, Stop Press and AMX 30 Zicon. These superb products are available from 


Printers and plotters are fully supported, AMX Utilities (3° Disc) 
lonly) can be purchased for £34 


= = 
————— i 


AMX MOUSE MK It! PLUS STOP PRESS, 5” DISt fio’ 


The most highly acclaimed desktop publishing software available for the 
Amstrad CPC. Already thousands of users are producing professional documents, 
newsletters, ly-posters etc. In tact anything where text and graphics are required. 
‘Stop Press’ comes complete with 16 vanable typefaces. Available for Amstrad 
CPC. 6128, CPC 664 |+ 64K min add on Ram), CPC 464 (+ 64K min add on 
Ram + Disc Orve). Please state which version is required when ordering 

STOP PRESS (ONLY) £48 
EXTRA! EXTRA! 2™3” DISC £24.99 
300K fantastic clip art and over 275 extra fonts 
“AMX MAGAZINE MAKER 3” DISC £129.99 

A combination of Stop Press and the Rombo Vidi- eens Using any 
video and the digitiser, images from a camera 
or TV can be converted into a graphics screen 
with Stop Press to illustrate magazines or 
newsletters. In fact anything that needs to be 
created on A4 sue paper, With Stop Press's 
many features a variety of pictures can be 

ised, the only limit being your imagination. 
ROMEO VIDI DIGITISER (ONLY) £89.99 








" Dise) £24.99 with Ticon you can transform vector data in into On screen » graphics. 


all good computer dealers or direct by cheque, Access or Visa. All pices include VAT and post and packaging, 
FOR INSTANT ACCESS. VISA ORDERS TELEPHONE (0925) 419501/2/3 = 


: A/A 


“ALL THESE PAQGRAMS WORK WITH 
KEYBOARD, JOVSTICE OF MOUSE. 


AMX SO} 





IMAGINATION aq YOUR FINGERTIPS : 


ADVANCED MEMORY SYSTEMS LTO. 166/170 WILDERSPOOL CAUSEWAY, WARRINGTON, WA4 GOA. TELEX 628672 AMSG. FAX 0925 58039. 
TUBELING ON PRESTEL “BOO7SGe SUPPORTS 


THE AME MOUSE AND ALL AMS SOFTWARE 





- en ee 





PROGRAMMING 








Exterminating Pagemaker bugs, 
reviving dead ribbons and worn keys. 
These and more tricks revealed. 


Beware Laser Genius 

When using an assembler, pecple often write $UB 4," rather than 
SU8 n, Neither is incorrect. Problems occur, however, if you use 
Laser Genius. It incorrectly assembles 56 A, 1 as: 

SUB A 

LO SP, HL 

This would, of course, prove disastrous if the code was executed. 
I have discovered this bug in Genus version 1.04. 

Rhys Jones 

Orton Goldhay, Peterborough 


Thrust scroll 

Have you ever wondered how Firebird makes the screens in Thrust 
and Star Firebirds scroll upwards? Well, here you have it in the 
form of a short listing: 

18 OUT EBCOO,1:FOR x=1 TO 48 

eB FOR t=1 TO S@:NWEXT ¢ 

38 OUT EBOOO,x: NEXT x 

Patrick Connolly 





ing Input and Inkey 

INKEYS is the more usual method of detecting a pressed key, but it 
is slow. INKEY is faster and using IF INKEY(47) > -1 THEN... means 
that the shift and control states can be disregarded. The problem 
with this method is the keys pressed are entered into the keyboard 
buffer - if you use a command such as INPUT following INKEY the 
character corresponding to the key you pressed will appear on 
screen. The solution is to flush the keyboard before and after the 
INKEY command. There seem to be a number of ram routines which 
flush the keyboard buffer. I use CALL &BBO9. 


10° CALL BBBOO: LF INKEY(47)>-1 THEN CALL BBBOS: GOTO 28 
ELSE GOTO 16 
20 PRINT “YOU PRESSED RETURN” 


The example waits until you hit the spacebar. Then it prints a 
message. The number 47 following the INKEY command refers to 
the spacebar: you will find a list of key numbers printed on the 
6128's case or at the back of the user manual. 


And there's £20 input to your bank for this hot tip, Tony. 
28 AMSTRAD ACTION mating the page 





Cures for Pagemaker 

Here is a short routine which corrects two of the more annoying 
bugs in AMX Pagemaxer. First, tt increases the printer timeout so 
that slow printers such as the DMP 2000 can be used. Second, it 
removes the bug in the circle routine which leaves a dotted lne on 
the screen when a graphic window is defined. 


To use the routine, run it with a copy of the master disk in the 


dnve. The program will amend Pagemaker. The version I own is 
CD 0.93 B — it is inadvisable to use this routine on any other version. 
Lines 20 to 130 inclusive are for the printer routines. Lines 140 to 
170 deal with the circle routine. 


18 
28 
30 
48 
50 
68 
7¢ 
ae 
cy 
188 
118 
128 
138 
148 
158 
168 
178 
175 
18e 
198 


MEMORY B3FFF 
FOR ¢=1 
LOAD"pagemake.ov2” ,B9CFE 
aS="pagenake.ov2":1ERA,gaS 

POKE E9E93,E1F 
SAVE"pagemake.ov2",b,G9CFE, 226A 
LOAD"pagemake.ov3" ,B9CFE 
a$="pagemake.ovd":1ERA,aa$ 

POKE EGE30,E1F 


TO SO:WEXT t 


SAVE"pagemake.ov3",b S9CFE,£1DF 
LOAD" pagemake.ové",B9CFE 
a$="pagemake. ove”: (ERA,gaS 

POKE E9EBD,&1F 

SAVE" pagemake ove" ,b, E9CFE ,226F 
LOAD" pagemake.ovi",64000 
aS="pagemate.ovi’::ERA,a@as 

POKE B419C,0:POKE £4190,0: 

POKE ESI9E,8 

SAVE" pagemake.ovi",&46008,8801 
CLOSPRINT Pagemaker patched” 


Tony Hoyle 
St Annes, Lancs 


Adding life to printer ribbons 
Here's a hint on tripling the life of printer mbbons —- in particular 
those belonging to Shinwa and Mannesmann Tally printers. 


When the central inked portion of the nbbon is exhausted tlt 
the front end of the cartndge by 3mm — in doing so exposing the F 


unused part of the ribbon to the print-head. This will add a hfe to 


the mnbbon. 2 

Once this has been used up, open up the cartridge, remove 
the the nbbon and rethread it upside-down - the third life. 

This technique may work with other ribbon cartridges. Experi- 
ment. It works a treat and saves money. 
Peter Ng 


How about this one-liner for some very odd on-screen effects? 
18 GUT BBCOG,INTCRND*#255):0UT EBDOD,INTCRND#®#255):60T0 18 





Rotherham, 5 Yorkshire 

Stop letters vanishing | 
Fading letters on Roger Payne's 6128 console (Reaction 21) can be ‘7 
halted, Dash to your local hobby shop and buy a modeller’s small 3 
paintbrush and a pot of clear acrylic varnish. Brush small dabs on 5 
top of each key. Leave for about six hours until dry. You now have >} 
a keyboad that won't lose its letters. ’ 
A Pocock | 
East Street, Walworth 

@ Re-mark the keys with rub-on or dry-transfer letters. WH Smith's * 
pack number seven matches the present style and size very well. S 


The life of these and other keys can be extended with a thin film 
of varnish. Ronseal is good, or even clear nail-varnish will do the 
job. Be careful not to put too much on at once: a better result can 
be obtained by building up layers gradually, allowing plenty of time 
to dry between layers. 


Clacton-on-Sea, Essex = 


— 8 


PROGRAMMING 





Shaky sound 


The small routine is useful for sprucing up your own program. 


Simply type it in and renumber to your liking. When nin it will 


give an explosion-like sound and the screen will judder realistically. 


19 ENVY 1,15,-1,2 

28 OUT BBCOG,8:0UT EBD0G,1 
38 SOUND 1,0,308,15,1,,31 
GY WHILE (S@(1) AND ERO) <> 
50 wWEND 

62 OUT €BCOO,8:0uUT B000,0 


M Worsley 
Fareham, Hants 


Upside-down 

If you want to play a joke on somebody try the listing below. Type 
it in and run. It turns the character set upside-down. You can get 
back to normal by entering SYMBOL AFTER 256 


1@ MODE 2:SYMBOL AFTER 32 
29 FOR a=32 TO 255 

30 LOCATE 1,17: PRINT CHRS(a) 
7 


S88), 


SYMBOL a,PEEK(CEFBOO) ,PEEKRCEFOOD) ,PEEK CEE 
EK(ECOGG), 


PEERCEEGO@) ,PEEK(ERS00) ,PEEK(EDGGG) ,PE 
PEER (ECOB@) 

5@ NEXT a 

Paul Bower 

Newbury, Berks 


KA 


Bankmanager update 

I was leafing through issue 17 and in Hot Tips discovered a small 
article by GR Andrews on the Bankmanager. I agree with his first 
point: the correct syntax of one of the commands is i: BANKWRITE, 
ri, a3, d rather than iBANKWRITE, ari, af, d 


Alter messing around with bankmanager RSXs I discovered 
that somewhere before the above command is executed, you must 


&80 is added to it. 









Basic stores real variables in five bytes in 
a coded form. Start by converting the value to 
binary. 
® Add together the number of mgnificant bits 
before the decimal point, add 440 to give byte 
@ The fournh byte comes from ignomnng the 
left-most bit and converting the seven remain- 

‘ing bits inte decimal. If the number is negative, 


pactios 2and | are obtained by tal 





hav out aeeitarda: say you had the number 
i234. Expressing 1234 in binary gives 1221101 
0012. The number of binary digits is 11, so byte 
5 = |] + &60 = &6B. 

Ignoring the first bit, but getting the value 
for the next seven, we have byte 4 = 
¢ = &1A. Our original number is not negative, 
so byte 4 remains as & 1A. 

The following eight bits give us the next 
coded byte: byte 3 = 10 20000 = &40. 

As there are no further bits, bytes 2 and 
| are zero. We now have all five bytes: 

O2 08 +8 14-68 


define rt to be zero or 54 or whatever you fancy. Once assigned 
the BANEWRITE command will function correctly. The reason is that 
instead of passing the value of rt to the routine, it passes the address 
in memory of the value of ri. In this way r% can be altered by the 
routine. 

In point 3, Mr Andrews talks about saving numbers in strings 
using the STk$ command. Do not forget that this will put either a 
blank or a minus sign at the beginning of the resulting string — thus 
making it bigger than the alloted size given in the | BANKOPEN 
command 
Phillip Connor 
Leamington, Warwickshire 


Format detecting 
If you wish to determine the format of a disk mun this program. 


ry 5 


= 
i nh oF 
= «£ 


to at - 


CLOSEQUT 


147) 


tw rr 


rh = 
2 a 
ia 
i 
=_ & fi FF 
1 


i 
Lindl a 


14 
) THEN PRINT “DATA”; 
THEN PRINT "CPM": 
THEN PRINT "TBM"; 
* Format" 


T Middelkamp 
Holland 


ee | 
& 
a ah = 


Fi i= 
f) 
= S| es 
nm or 1 = | fi 


= tl 


a 
a 


fi 


Dotty characters 
Continuing with the crazy character fonts, here's a progette that 
gives you a dotty character set. SYMBOL AFTER 256 switches off 
the effect. 

19 CLS:SYMBOL AFTER 32 

eO FOR a=HIMEM TO HIMEM+767 
$0 bePEEK(a):POKE a,b AND B/S 


u 3 
LH WEXT a 


Michael Unreadable Surname 
Stanley, Co Durham 


Go forth and add 
Suppose we wished to add 1234 to 1234. 
Using the Basic vector at &BD58: 
OG £9000 
CO AL, ftrat sueber 
LD DE, decond number 
CALL bese 
WET 





Tire? mower 


o8 02,00, 060,074,888 


second nueger 


78. 08,00 £68,094 ,025 


4. points to the five bytes representing the 
first real-number in coded format. £ points to 
the second value in coded format. After the 
call #. will point to the result - held in 
first nusber, which you must decode. 

The example shown is not the best poss- 
ible. There are simpler methods of adding two 
identical numbers. Still, it shows you how to 
use the Basic vector. 
subtracting, mulipiving and dividing in tha 


On the 664 or 6128: &RD79, BD7F_ BD82. BDSS 
Remember 4. points to one number, p£ to the 
other. After the call 4. points to the result. 





oe. 11e1 





Hangouts gone undergeund AMSTRAD ACTION 29 








SERIOUS SOFTWARE 








te Phe. nee per % ear 
dimension 

Richard Monteiro recounts minutes 
from his encounters with a real clock 





Real-Time Clock 


DK’ tronics, £34.95 — 464 and 6128 only 


Not long ago DK'tronics produced innovative plug-ins at an extra- 
ordinary rate. Not much new has come from the Norfolk firm in 
recent months. November ‘66 saw the release of its last Amstrad 
hardware gadget — which turns your monitor into a television. Now, 
more than six months later, DK’t is ticking once more: a real-time 
clock is the offering. 

A real-time clock is something that keeps an accurate account 
of the time — “the time sponsored by Accurist” is a good example. 
The word “real” means time in the outside world as opposed to 
internal computer clocks, which can be upset by factors such as 
loading a program or even by a program munning in memory (not 
to mention by shutting the machine off) 

All DK’s products are enclosed in a case - matching to a tick 

your Amstrad's bodywork. DE't always makes two models of each 
add-on: the 464 and 6128 are different heights and have expansion 
slots in different positions. The 664 loses out: neither model fits 
satisfactorily. An obvious solution is a length of mbbon cable 
hetween 664 and plug-in. 

Rip open the packaging and you will discover the real-time 
clock (RTC), software on cassette and a thin manual 

Read the manual carefully before jumping into the clockworks 
It's heavy reading and not ideal for beginners or those withoul a 
slight bias towards the technical side of computing. Examples are 
few and far between, Much is left to your experimenting. The text 
deals with installation (tells you to switch off the computer before 
inserting the RTC, thank you), extra commands supplied by the 
software and an eight-way input-output pon. Unfortunately there is 
only the briefest of operating instructions. 

The RTC has battery back-up and retains the time in a few 
bytes of its own ram even when the computer is switched off for 
several months, While the computer is in operation a nickel- 
cadmium battery charges up, 


Inside the Real-Time Clock 





For those in the peek and poke trade there are a few spare 
bytes of clock-ram. And, if you've got other wires in the real-world, 
there is an eighl-way input-output port -— controlled by a Z80 PIO 
(penpheral input-output) chip. Just don! expect any suggestions in 
the manual for using it 

The easiest way to get the RTC ticking is to use the supplied 
software. This consists of several new commands to set the time 
and alarm, read the time or alarm-time and display the time. There 
are a couple of others that deal with the reading and writing to the 
extra clock-ram 

Because of the lack of instructions, you may find using the 
additional commands rather a chore. Persevere and youll be 
pleased with the results. Particularly nice is the RTC’s ability to 
maintain and update the year, month and date — it handles leapyears, 
weekdays and all. The alarm function 1s also a treat: it can be set 
from once a day to once a second. By using one of the extra 
bar-commands you can display the time - in hours, minutes and 
seconds - at any position on the screen constantly. 


Over to CPM 


There is a bonus for CPM Plus users: CLOCK.COM is also 
supplied on the cassette. This CPM utility — when transfered to disk 
allows you to modify the tume or date held in the RTC or CPM's 
internal clock locations. With this you can date-stamp files. CPM's 
internal clock is software-controlled, which means it will fall shahtly 
behind true time. This is not a great restriction as date-stamping 
doesn't log the seconds anyway. Of course this doesnt alfect the 
timekeeping of the RTC 
Apart from the manual - which lacks information in several 
departments - I have no serious gripes. Having a clock plugged 
into your computer is handy on occasions, but not exactly essential! 
(though one thing we at AA would like is a way of date-stamping 
Protext files without going into CPM). If you are competent in 
programming or electronics then [m sure the SU-odd bytes and 
eioht-way pon will get your grey-matter moving A4 


Using the port 

You get an eight-way input-output port with the real-time 
clock. But what use is it? Don't look at the instruction manual 
It gives no clues. 

Many things can be plugged into the port: mouse, extra 
joystick or keypad, measuring or sensing devices such as a 
barometer, thermometer or pressure pad, and controllers for 
model railways or robots or even the washing-machine. All 
these add-ons require feet-wetting. You'll need to be a dab 
hand with a soldering iron and even better at pushing a byte 
or two round the computers memory. 

A couple of low-priced books published by Bernard 
Babani may help you on your way: Easy Add-on Projects for 
Amstrad CPC 464, 664, 6128 and MSX Computers (ISEN 0 
65934 145 3) and Electronic Circuits for the Computer Control 
of Robots (ISBN 0 85934 153 4). Both cost £2.95. 





DEK tronics : 
Longs Indusirial Estato, Enclands Lane. Gorlesion, Greal Yarmouth. Norloik. NAS) 6BE 
Bernard Babani (Publishing) Ltd 

The Grampians. Shepherds Bush Road. London, We THE 


Any bookseller will know what to do with the International Standard Book Number 


ol 


Goo OD N E W S a oe 
@ Comes in the usual smart DK't FL ee 
box. @ Software not as complete as it 
@ Handy to have time appear on could be. 
screen, @ Why no real-world examples of 
@ Flexible alarm function. using W/O port? 
@ Maintains correct time even if 


switched off for months. 
@ 1/0 port lets you contact the real 
world. 








WOW (S YOUR CHANCE TO PARTICIPATE IN 1987'S MOST EXCITING RECORD-BREAKING EVENT - THE FIRST EVER 
SUCCESSFUL CROSSING OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN BY HOT-AIR BALLDOW! 


THEY WAVE BEEN CHALLENGED TO A RACE BY ANOTHER BALLOONIST! 

THIS SPLIT-SCREEN ARCADE GAME IS FULL OF ACTION AND IS DESIGNED FOR EITHER ONE OR TWO PLAYERS. YOU 
PLAY A POWERFUL, BUT MISCHIEVOUS EAGLE THAT CAN HELP (OR HINDER') RICHARD. YOU CAN HELP CONTROL 
RICHARD’S (OR HIS RIVAL’S) BALLOON ALTITUDE AND COURSE AND HELP WARD OFF THE DASTARDLY HINDRANCES 
THAT HAVE BEEN ARRANGED FOR YOUR DOWNFALL (LITERALLY!). 


YOUR OPPONENT ALSO HAS AN EAGLE AS A MASCOT AND BETWEEN THE PAIR OF YOU IT IS OUT AND OUT WAR MOST 
OF THE TIME! 


f 





TRANSATLANTIC BALLOON CHALLENGE 1s available () Commodore 64/128(27.95) CL) Spectrum 48/128 (£795) 
from all good software retailers, or directly ‘romus. [7] Amstrad OPC cassetie(£795) (1 Amstrad CPC cise (+ 1? 95) 
Please make crossed cheques or postal orders pay- 
able to Virgin Games Ltd and send to Virgin Games Ltd 


2/4 Vernon Yard, Portobello Road, London W1l 2DX Name. $$ 
PLEASE DO NOT POST COINS OR MONEY! Address "= ——.; OA “ihe 





Total moneyenclosed 

















SERIOUS SOFTWARE 





WORD 














WORK 





How to get the most from your word-processor and printer. 


A new regular feature. 


Here you are. A section of the magazine devoted to the 
an cba? user, mrery month we'll look at certain 

acts . essing: speeding things up, making a 
neiter job, tips, ‘tricks and answering your queries. To 
remain sane we have decided to limit the number of 
word-processors covered: the more popular such as 
Protext, Tasword and Wordstar will be looked at. We kick 
off this month with a look at setting up. 





It is important to have your word-processor tuned to your taste. Thus 
makes hie easy and production a lot faster. Things such as colour 
choice and key combinations may seem trivial, but if you constantly 
use a word-processor these trivial irritations become unbearable. 






ng Tasword 
Various versions of Tasword exist: Tasword 464, Tasword D and 
Tasword 6/28. They all have a Basic loader which makes it easy to 
set them up, 
Load the Basic Tasword loader and type LIST. You should see 
_ Basic commands such as KEY, BORDER and Int. If you wish to 
., Customize Tasword it is best to remove all these commands. 
_ Tasword works in Mode 2, which means only two colours are 
allowed on the screen: one background colour (PAPER) and 
one foreground (PEN). If you want the text in black, and the 
border and paper in white, you would need to add a 
‘ new line to the loader, like this: 25 [Nk 0,24: 
BORDER 26: INE 1,8. 
If you're not sure how the Ink and Border 
commands work, a quick scan through the 
User Instructions won'l go amiss. However, 
here are a few pointers: the number following 
- AORDE® refers to the colour; the first number after 
INK refers to the inkpot (in this case there are only two, 
“the background and foreground). The second number indicates 
the colour. The CPC manual has a list of numbers and the colours 


Using KEY 

hips word-processing, it is handy to have often-used phrases or 
squences of control codes available at the touch of a single key. 

This effect can be implemented using Basic’s KEY command. For 

example, try entering this line: 

oh KEY B,"Amstrad Action” + CHRSC13S) # "Future Publishing Ltc”™ 

+ CHRSC13) + "4 Queen Street" + CHRSC13) + "Bath" + CHRS( 13) + 

“GAT TEL” + CHRSC13). 

“CHRS(13)" is of course the Ascu code for end-of-line. 

Naturally, you can place whatever you like in the function keys. 
Remember you have 32 of them: Shift and Control states also count. 
Take care that the content of an individual key doesn't exceed 120 
characters — otherwise you'll get an error message. 

Once you have added all the bits and pieces to the Tasword 
loader, save it. Whenever you load Tasword, it will be set to your 

It is possible to alter everything descnbed earlier from within 
Tasword, but unfortunately it's only temporary. There is no option 
for saving the alteration: every time you load Tasword you will have 
to configure it to your liking — what a pain. You must go into Basic 
to do it permanently, 


32 AMSTRAD ACTION 





















= =. | : 
Playing with Protext 
Arnor's Protext is similar to Tasword in that tt has a small Basic 
loader before the main program. Again you can create a personal- 
ized loader if you wish - in fact, Arnor encourages this. 

At AA we work on green screens: a black background (that 
is, INK 8,8) and white text (INK 1,26) is the easiest to work with. 
Before the final document is put through to the typesetter, it needs 
codes (just as the dot-matrix printer needs control codes for italics 
and bold). Phototypesetter codes are usually more wordy: the 
programmabie function keys come in handy. For example, to 
produce slanted print we use the command [/1; [:] stands the 
letters upright again. In the Profesxt loader we define certain function 
keys to produce these and other effects. 

The Profext manual lists special codes if you want to build 
various keystrokes onto a function key: Shift-, for mstance, takes 
the cursor to the next word, and in Profext this is CHeS(247). By 
making good use of function keys you can save a good deal of time 
and effort. 

It is very easy to make tary alierahions in the setup of Profext 
dunng operation: typing quit or q from its command mode returns 
you to Basic — not only that, but youll find the loader program still 
there: just type LIST. From here you can alter colours, redefine keys 
or program function keys. Typing '? returns you to Profext — neat. 


from Tasword or Protext: 
od and saved as a User 
merous setup files and can 














under Pyraword, and each 
splays their contents; the small 
yu yraword needs two keystokes 
r DOTIO ument, it makes sense to use a 
r this PTs r 
tmode, Control-2 takes you to command mode. From 
n alter all sorts of things: pressing |] or K will change 
ind pen colours respectively, L or 5 will load or save the 
ms: colours, tab stops and keystroke memones. When 
loads, it searches for a User Options file called Wpsvopts.- 
entioned in the manual). If you save your alterations under 
2 then there is no need to load them manually. 














star under 2.2 
tion deals with creating an everyday Wordstar work disk 
siruct you how to auto-start Wordstar, select the colours 
2 keys, among other things. Before going any further, you 
a CPM 2.2 system disk and a disk contaming Wordstar 
up your system disk and type SETUP at the 4> prompt 
} a message will appear: Initial command buffer... is 
this correct? (Y/N). Before answering, insert your Wordstar disk 
into the drive. Then press N. This allows you to enter a command 
that will automatically execute when you type : (CP 
at the beginning of the day. 
Your entry shouid look like this: W5'* 























flename for Wordstar. ' The up-arrow 


(') tells the system a control-key 
instruction follows, in this case 
Control-M means Return or Enter 

Once you ve typed that or, 
press the Return key. A confirmatory 
message will appear — just press Y 
Another option will come to view: Sign-On string... Correct? 


All the options will give you the option of altering them. Say yes- 
it's-correct im each case unless stated otherwise 

From here, colours can be selected and text displayed on 
boot-up. This could be a useful sign rin: 


Lage JwwWordstar wor JCustomired by 














4 Gl le Freo 


Sugar’ JVersion2.11°S 
This will set the paper and bo 
It will also display a message 
and set the colours that you 
fuller explanation of the sym 
month's Problem Attic 

The next option, wher 
string.... You can use thé 
the printer — for example, to. 
itabe print. Control character 
a Suggestion: 
resets the printer and prints a ge 

Your printer must be on u boot 
CPM waits until it is. 


Custom keys | | 

The next function is possibly the’ you 
alter key defrutions. Wordstar uses | SOT 
movement keys: Control with §,.D, and 
down. Not only are these ke } are 
awkward to access. How 1 ister 
(which wasn't invented when Wordsta: OTT!) job 
Easily done from the option Keyboard translation... 


‘oO white and text to black. 
iS use YOUr OWN messages 
rable to work with. For a 
o “Setting up Setup” in thus 


o it, is Printer 
ontrol-characters or text to 
WLQ (near-letter quality) or 
‘prefixed with “" re's 


(aLirFatiofr J It 


POwer-up 














'LaWorastar o 









sn't 








Selecting this option produces a sub-menu 


A - add key translation (key na 


Uv = G@lete cey 


i ie | Ef 3 ‘ a . 1 
2 # fitie fF: aie a8 rt, COATrOt ! 


translations (key no) 


L ~ Clear Bh Transtations 


“Fa 


sh transiations 


We are interested in only A and F. Type exactly the following, 
pressing Return al the end of each ime 








SERIOUS SOFTWARE 


The 4 at the beginning of each line indicates the option you 
wish to use. The next number refers to a key number. If your 
machine is a 664 or 6128 look on top of the disk drive: there is a 
handy diagram of the keyboard and key numbers. 464 owners will 
find it in the User Instructions. The rest of the numbers on the line 
tell the machine what character to print when the key is pressed 
on its own, with Shift or with Control — in that order. At the back of 
the User Instructions manual ts a table showing characters and their 
corresponding Ascii codes 

The § in the first line is the key-number for ) on the keypad. 
The next number, 19, is the character that will appear when the 
left-arrow is pressed: Control-S, Wordstar's “cursor left”. Shift-¢ is 
programmed by the next number. Control-A (Ascii |) is used by 
Wordstar to move to the left by a word. The last figure, affecting 
Control-), is above 127 which means it isn't an Ascii character 
Wordstar and other CPM applications will ignore this 


Function keys 

Certain functions in Wordstar need two or three keypresses 
Control-QE to get to the top of the text, for example. It is very easy 
to hit the wrong key or forget the correct sequence. This is where 
the next Setup option, Keyboard expansions..., Comes in handy. It 
works on the same principle as Basic’'s KEY command: you can 
define the function keys to produce a string of characters when you 
hit one of them 

Entering function-key defirutions is done the same way as 
defining keys. Some useful defirutions: 





The first number refers to the function key (0 to ¥ 
key sequence. In our example, #? will save 
the current fle and return you to the editor, 
fi will show the disk catalogue fram which 
you can delete a file. The other two are 
for start- and end-block markers 

And thal was the last Setup option 
of any real use to the WYordstar user. 
Answer Y to all other questions. The 
penultimate option will save all the 
changes to your Wordstar disk. And 
finally CPM will re-boot letting you 
see all your alterations. Experiment till 
your system suits you. AA 


AMSTRAD ACTION 33 



























SERIOUS SOFTWARE 


stuff the buff 


Richard Monteiro finds you don’t get in 
a huff with a printer buffer 
MicroStuffer 


Frontier Software, £49.95 








Have you ever sat in front of your monitor, twiddling your toes, 
waiting for control to return to the computer while the printer noisily 
churns away? Go on, admit it. This problem always occurs when 
you print a long document or dump a screen. Frontier Software to 
the rescue! Frontier's Microstuffer is a smart device (with a smart 
price — half that of most competitors) that lies between computer 
and pnnter, unmammuing the traffic, so you can get on with more 
important tasks /lixe twiddiing your moustache - Prod. Ed. | 





A printer buffer stores data en route to the printer. The 
computer shoves data out at high speed to the buffer. The buffer 


sends it to the printer when the printer is ready to accept further 
information. 

The Microstuffer comes with 32 inches of ribbon cable, its plug 
fitting the printer's Centronics port. Tour existing printer cable joins 
the computer to the Stuffer, There's also a power supply to suppor 
the buffer’s 64k ram. It's a nifty little transformer-rectifier that can 
convert mains to DC at various voltages between 3 and |2. But a 
battery might have been tidier as well as £10 cheaper. 

When you plug everything in and switch on, the 5Stuffer 
performs a quick self-test. This verifies its ram chips, micro- 
processor and circuitry. An extended self-test will even indicate 
which bank of ram is faulty or indicate a broken wire etc 
reassuring. 

There are two pushbuttons on the front of Stuffer, Pressing one 
will cause the last document to be printed again: very useful if you 
need multiple copies. The second button clears the 64k 

When the Stuffer is operating, a diode flashes to indicate how 
much buffer space is left. The faster the flash the less space 
available 

I am impressed by the Microstuffer. It is a simple no-frills 
add-on that does a fine job. It has useful self-test, multiple copy and 
buffer-space features. In terms of vse it scores highly: its ram can 
hold data for four entire screen dumps or over 45 pages of text 
perhaps two hours’ printing — letting you get on with other jobs. The 
stuffer is a device all printer owners should consider. AA 

G 0 0 OD 


N E W $5 B A OOD oe ee ee | 


@ 64k of ram for your printer to fill BR Str tog) eae 


| up. wire to dangle. 
| @ Works with any Centronics 


@ The price could be dropped 
(parallel) printer. slightly 
@ Sits neatly between computer 

and printer. 
@ Self-test function indicates any 

trouble 
@ Repeat button can produce 
several copes of a document. 





Frontier Software (423) AT140 
PO) Bes 114, Harrogate, N Yorkshire, Add JBE 





Professional 
 ) 1] 
printing 
Smart-looking documents could justify 
this marginal cost 
Taspro 464 


Seven Stars Publishing, £7.95 tape, £10.95 disk 


There seems to be a current abundance of utility packages aimed 
at the printer user. No bad thing either: the printer seems to be the 
first and most popular addition to anyone's computer, Seven Stars, 
with Qualitas (see issue 21) to its credit, has introduced a product 
that will enable a number of popular word-processors to give 
proportionally-spaced justified text 

FProtext, Tasword and many other word-processors make a line 
of text finish flush against the right margin — that's what “justifying' 
means — by inserting extra character spaces between words. The 
trouble is that some spaces on the line will be twice as big as others 

Taspro intercepts data for the printer and inserts equal spaces 
between all words on the line. “Microspacing”™ is an often-flung 
phrase for this padding-out technique. Redefined characters (for 
instance those formed by printing one characters on top of another) 
and embedded printer control codes —- which select italics or bold 
print, for example — are all correctly justified by Taspro. Micro- 
spaced text results in a much neater and more readable document 
- altogether more professional-looking. 


34 AMSTRAD ACTION wm cutt you's tut « 


Taspro can be configured to work with virtually any printer. It 
ls ready to run with dot-matrix printers (such as the Amstrad DMP 
2000 and Mannesmann MT80) and daisywheel printers (for example, 
the Quen-Data DWP1120 or Brother HR-15). If your printer does not 
accept Epson codes, there's still hope: contact Seven Stars, who 
should be able to help you set up Taspro to suit your system. There 
are two exceptions to this rule: dot-matrix printers that can't produce 
bit-image graphics and text on the same line or daisywheel printers 
that can't have their spacing pitch altered in increments of inch 

Using an RSX command supplied by Taspro, :COLS, you can 
set the number of columns. By setting the printing width to greater 
than the total column width you can switch Taspro off. This is handy 
as Taspro increases printing time through extra movement of the 
print head. If you are using NLO (near-letter quality) print, use 
Taspro only on the final version of the document. It saves print-head 
and ribbon wea! 

Overall it's a well-presented package with a simple custom. 
ization program that lets you make the most of your word-processor 
and printer. Taspro is just the thing for producing professional 
looking documents al a small price. AA 


S 0 0 OD N E— W 5 Eee ee N E W 5 


@ Microipaced text gives 
documents a professional touch. 
@ if your printer can't produce 


proportional text, let Taspro 
do it, 

B@ Can be used with many word- 
procesiors and even more 
printers. 





feven Stars Publishing fF ((@ 254) 445 


4 Squire] Rise, Marlow, Bucks SLT JPN 


@ Your printer must be capable of 
mixing text and graphics on the 
same line. 

@ Printing time increased - slightly. 








\/ 
SCREENVISION 
TURNS YOUR MONITOR 
INTO A COLOUR TV! 









VISA 












IREN 


OFTWARE! 


- DISCOVE RY PLUS 


THE TAPE TO DISC TRANSFER PROGRAM. 
Discovery Plus is the best selling tape to disc transfer program that 
currently available for your Amstrad CPC. Guaranteed to transfer more 
games than any other program, (the first person who can find a more 
successful program will receive twice his money back), Discovery Plus 
will transfer the vast majonty of Amstrad programs from tape to disc. 
‘Discovery Plus must be the most advanced & probably most efficent 
transfer utility to date"Amstrad Action 1986 
Discovery Plus will transfer thousands of programs, but we include full 
instructons on how to transfer over 150 top games. 

Available on disc only £14.99 for the 464/664/6128 


TAPE UTILITY 
This extraordinary program allows you to make back up copies of most 
of your tape based soltware and load them back at 4 bmes the normal 
speed. So easy to use, this program removes protection as it copes! 
Witten specially for the 464, this is not a spectrum conversion. 
Avialable on = only £6.99. 464 only. 


NEw CHERRY PAINT wew 





This impressive program allows you to draw pictures/Giagrams etc on a 


resoluton of 640°200 pixels. Full features include pull down windows 


| etc, Compatible with keyboard, joystick & AMX mouse. See Amstrad 
| Acton May 1987 for full revew. Unbelievable value at only £9.99 on 
| disc 464/664/6 128. 















SCREENS MICROCOMPUTERS & ELECTRONICS LTD 


_—— __ MAIN AVENUE MOOR PARK. NORTHWOOD 
; MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND 


TELEPHONE 08274 20654 TELEX: 929224 SCREEN 6 








“Without a doubt Siren Software have produced some of the best disc utilities 
ever seen on the Amstrad range of computers." Amtix! January 1987 


new PRINT MASTER > NEW 


The printer enhancement package thal no printer owner would be 
without, T his unique suite of programs will allow you to make the 
most of your DMP2000 or Epson compatible panter. 

« Pont out your wordprocessor hles using 20 temic fonts and 3 pnnt 
SIZES 

- Superb large 16 shade screen Gump. 

- Amazing black & white dump of any mode. 

+ Uitra fast character dump. 

- Font designer allows you to design & alter fonts. 

+ Large poster pnntng can also be actneved. 

This exceptonally easy lo use program will produce amazing results. 
This spectacular program is available on disc only £14.99. 
464/664/6 128. 

This program requires the use of quad density graphics pnntng on 


nEw SOUNDBLASTER wsNeEw 
THE STEREO SOUND AMPLIFIER 

This terrific piece of hardware allows you to play your games with the 
luxury of stereo sound, This system adds a new Gmension to games 
with hifi quality sound effects and tunes. The Soundblaster comes 
complete with 2 top quality 20 watt speakers ( each containing a 
woofer, 2° mid-range 4 a tweeter). Twin volume controls allow you to 
adjust both volume and balance. 
Available now only £29.99. CPC 464/664/6125 
FREE STEREO HEADPHONES WITH ALL ORDERS 








All prices include postage & VAT. Overseas orders please add £1.00 per program for postage. Flease send all cheques postal orders fo:- 


VISA 


Leer MANCHESTER M1 5QA 


| SIREN SOFTWARE, 2-4 OXFORD ROAD, 


_ 








x N 





ee 


SERIOUS SOFTWARE 





Sharpenin 


hime) lemnceye)| 


RpM calls a 


n assembly to pronounce upon 
an upgraded programming utility 


Devpac80 version 2 
con bs £39.95 disk only (£15 to upgrade from Version 1) 


Devpacé0 was one of the earliest and most popular Z80 program- 
ming teols for the CPC computer - the*workhorse ofmany a famous 
software house. It was around at the same time as gen (by Kuma). 
The main difference between the two’ was the CPM environment: 
Devpac&? needed it, Zen did not. 

Now two years on, Devpacéd has sprouted Version 2. Features 
have been enhanced and new ones added. Butis there a place for 
it with the likes of Maxarn IT at large? 

Half the battle is won if the mafiial is‘readable— and doesn't 
assume everyone is fluent at assembly programming. The new 
Devpacé? comes packaged in typical HiSoft style: a looseleaf binder 
with lU0-odd pages of instructions. sections are provided for 
beginners and more advanced users. It is a pleasure to read: pages 
are well laid out and cause an occasional giggle -— choice phrases 
such as “cracking a nut with a sponge" and “when silence and the 
A> prompt rules again... 

The disk contains two versions of Devpac&0. One side works 
under CPM 2.2; the other is for CPM Plus. This is a good idea, as 
all CPC machines can make wse of the program. It will even fun on 
Amstrad PCW, Einstein and MSA machines 

Before you start using Devpacé0, you are advised to make a 
workdisk. [ts not a good idea to copy the whole disk, whith is 
packed tight on both sides: just copy the files you'll frequently use 
Along with the assembler,jediter and) monitor are utility programs 
that can copy files, deleté a rumber of files, give an extended 
directory, conven .COM files. to BIN and vice-versa 


Three parts 

Devpac is split ini@\tifee separate parts: the editor where you 
enter machine-code mihemonics (or, opcodes), the assembler thal 
Genverts source-code (the ‘Stull you typed in at the editor) into 
object-code, and the monitor that assists in removing bugs from the 
Opject- or machine-code 

The editor, with the stimulating title of HDE, can be thought of 
asja word-processor. It produces text (or Ascii) files. If you've 
dabbled with Wordstar then you'll feel at home: HDE's command 


meys to move up or down a screenful, save a file, mark beginning 


and end of block are identical. If you don't already know Wordstar, 
you'll find its choice of keys a pain to use and hard to remember 
The prospect of having to use these keys within HDE did not overjoy 
me. But I was glad to find a comprehensive setup file and altered 
all the keystrokes to suit my*keyboardefemity not more software is 
this versatile 

AS with Yordstar, there is lithe Dévpac'ss editor cannot do. It 
offers copying, pasting anda weleting blocks. complete cursor 
control, search-and-replace, insef and Overwnite... You can also 
assemble, run or debug a program from HDE — handy 

Assembling is done Mm tWo passes. The first pass checks the 
syntax and creates a symbol table. iithe assembler, GENE, 
encounters an error it displays the offending line and continues 
The second pass generates the code, but will not occur if an error 


36 AMSTRAD ACTION Pop, pop, pop the stack 





was found in pass One; instead You will be returned to the editor 
unless you insiru@ted otherwne. 

There ar@.a mMumber of GENS0 assembler directives. These 
have no effecf'on the 280 processor, but cause certain actions at 
assembly time: 

- PRINTER sends the assembly to the printer 
- RELOCATE lets you produce .REL files which can be linked together 
DIRECTINPUT allows you to enter text from the keyboard and have 
it assembled there and then 
#AGR0S are supported 
TF amd ELSE allows conditional assembly 
+ T2722 is my favourite. It puts the computer to sleep until a key is 
pressed. 

Fromon, the debugger that makes up the third part of Devpac., 
can be customized in a similar fashion to HDE. Its main function is 
to Relp you nd your program of errors. It contains a dissassembler, 
memery editor and, monitor 

Commands come in batches: memory commands which let you 
compare areas of memory, fill locations with any value or simply 
view and edit parts of it. Then there are search commands with 
which you can look for a byte or string and a powerful search- 
mnemonic command — it lets you enter LD A, (HL) and if the bytes 
corresponding to this are found, the locations are displayed 


| Battle of the giants | 
You have two competent programming utilities, but which do 
you go for? 

In its favour, Arnor's Maxam IJ has a superb editor and 
is easy [oO use. Against: the 150 price is excessive (presumably 
to compensate for high production costs) and the manual 
does not cover topics in enough detail. It also requires I2ek 
and CPM Plus. 

The original Devpacé0 cost £40 -— Version 2 is the same 
price. The manual is compulsive reading: it teaches and is 
witty. Devpac can work under CPM 2.2, which means 404 
and 664 owners are not left in the lurch However, much 
setting up is required to tune the system to your taste 

If you own one of the earlier CPC machines and intend 
to create programs that will work under either CPM or the 
Amstrad's native operating system then I'd plump for Devpac 
If, on the other hand, your budget can stretch and you intend 
to produce CPM files then Maxam I/ is probably the wiser 
choice 


Slowing it down 

It is possible to execute a machine-code program slowly, 
giep-by-step or by using breakpoints. These are inserted into your 
code and when reached return control to Promon. A very full sei 
of breakpoint options are allowed: hard, eonditional, .watchpoints 
(let you execute a patch of code a ceftain nufiber of times - 
especially useful for loop-testing) 

There are many nice touches within Dgvpac = more than I can 
list in a page. Being able to produce REL meang the output from 
other languages such as CBASIC, ProPaseal, PréFortran and all 
Microsoft languages can be linked. The @ss@mblais output can be 
used by other debuggers (namely those fom Mictosott and Digital 
Research). All the CPC memory is exposed and free for you to play 
with if you have Devpac. It is a complete programming tool. And it 
scores over its nvals by being cheaper, having better documentation 
and being more geared towards the CPC market. It's a package | 


wouldn't hesitate to recommend AA 
Aigeh iT (825) 7] Bilal 


The O60 Schon. areenheid. Bediond. MAR4S SUE 


SG 0 UO OD N & W S$ | A O 
@ Manual is excellent for both 
novice and old hack. 
@ Half the price of Maxam II. 
| Works under CPM 2.2 as well as 
| CPM Plus. 


@ A lot of setting up is required. 





7 
**.. 


“er. 
ayNaPs 


ine most 
imaginative son 
shoot-em-up game 
yel, from Hewson 
It has a combination 
of 140 possible story 
sequences tO te your 
THE TE ea 
a game constructed like 
a comic book, with three 
chapters and four 
episodes oF mind- 
blowing action. Each — 
part gets tough: | 
TU ee 
the final conflict 
It's the battle 
(Oe! All. 
Datties! | 














256K SILICON DISC e@9 9 © G9 © 


© This is the fastest storage 
| system available for Amstrad 
_ CPC computers and 1s comp- 
3 atible with CPM 2.2, CPM+ 

= and all DK'Tronics peripherals 
} including the 64K/256K 
) memory expansions. When 

) used with CPM+ and our 

foo 256K memory the edition disc 

capacity is a massive 442K (more than the POW 8512 
Ram Disc), It automatically logs on as drive B or drive C 
in two drive systems and does not require extra power 
Supply. 
© The 256K Silicon Dise ts designed to be used with at 
least one normal disc drive attached. When fitted the 
directory uses 2K thus leaving 254K for storage, over 70K 
more than the normal discs. 
© Data and programs can be exchanged between the 
Silicon Disc and a normal disc, application programs can then 
work on the data at vastly increased speed especially on 
systems with only one normal drive. 
o Software is contained in an expansion ROM and there are 
two environments in which the Silicon Disc can be used, 
BASIC under AMSDOS where all the normal AMSDOS 
commands are fully supported LOAD, SAVE, MERGE, CAT etc 
and within CP/M 2.2 CP/M+ where commercial programs are 
designed to run on multi drive systems 


£75.00 including VAT (464 and 6128) 


64K and 256K wa@aresss s 
MEMORY EXPANSIONS 


» The memory expansions 
| increase the Amstrad 464's 
_| internal memory to give a total 
of 128K or 320K, The 6128's 
memory is increased to 320K. 
It is compatible with all 
DK'Tronics penpherals includ- 
ing the 256K Silicon Disc 
# itis supplied with bank 
switching RSX software (464 software on cassette 6128 
On disc, 
» The software adds some BASIC commands which makes 
it passible to use the second 64K (or 3rd or 4th and Sth 
in the case of 256K) for storage of screens, windows, 
graphics and basic arrays. This ability means that you can 
write much larger basic programs and sophisticated programs 
that use pull-down menus with ease 
» With an expansion fitted on the 464 it then has the same 
memory configuration as the CPC 6128. It will then run 
CPM+ with its massive 61K TPA. area, opening up an even 
larger software base to 464 users. When using erther of the 
expansions with CPM 2.2 on the 464 and 6128 computer 
the TPA. 1s increased to 58K 
» The RAM is accessed by means of bank switching using a 
single 1/O port. Memory is actually switched in and out of the 
64K780 address space in 16K sub blocks (as are the ROMS). 
The port determines which particular combinations of the 
onginal four 16K sub blocks and any new sub blocks from 
the expansion RAM will occupy the 64K address space at 
any time All of this switching is done automatically by the 
software supplied. 
« The contents of the expansion RAM are retained if the 
computer 1s reset and if the RAM is used for machine code 
the contents will remain even if the computer crashes. 


64K £39.95 including VAT (464 only) 
256K £75.00 inclucding VAT (464 and 6128) 








—“ TIME CPC’S 
1 @ just released, a real time 
8 clock for the CPC range of 
eee Amstrad computers. It will 
maintain the time of day 
with seconds, minutes and 
a 12-24 hour format, a cal- 

endar with the day of the 

| week, date, month and year 
— # There 15 an automatic 
end of the month recognition and automatic leap year 
compensation. An alarm facility can also be set from 
once per second to once per day 
@ The module 's battery backed so that the time 15 
maintained after the computer's power 15 switched off 
This ts via a rechargeable Nicad Battery. The battery 
is automatically recharged whenever the computer ts 
used, and the interface is fitted. It also contains 50 
bytes of battery backed RAM for storing of ; 
important data etc 








DK'Tronics have produced this range of powerful pe 
and 6128 Amstrad Computers and have been % 


we SILICON DISC C8 09 © OC o” 


0 The 64K Silicon Disc has 
~ | all the features of the 256K 
=. | version with the exception 

cage Of the size RAM memory 
fae) available. This is 62K with 
2K for the directory. It uses 
eae the second bank of 64K in 
mea in the 6128 or the DKT 64 
= | memory on the 464 and 
configures this a5 a silicon 
RAM disc 
© It cannot be used with 
CPM+ as this is already 
used in the second bank 








| £29.95 including VAT (464 and 6128) 





® Its suppled with RSX software which transparently 
updates CPM's own software clock therefore also main 
taining a very accurate CPM software clock. The module 
can be used for date stamping of CPM-+ discs, and any 
applications which require periodic Real Time Control 
® There is a Programmable Penodic Interrupt Generator 
with three types of interrupts which are separate soft 
ware maskable and testable, tme of day alarm once 


, per second to once per day, Penodic rates from 122 MS 
to 500 MS and end of clock update cycle. To enable 
the user to use these interrupts to control apphcations 

, in the real world it 15 also fitted with an 8 bit input/ 


output port The input/output port can also be used 

on its Own or in conjunction with the Real Time Clock 
@ The interface has a through connector to allow other 
penpnerals to be connected at the same time 


£34.95 including VAT (464 and 6128) 








peripherals to enlarge the potential of the 464 
lesigned to compliment their style and colour. 


] 





POWER BEHIND YOUR AMSTRAD 


DE’ Tronics Limited 
Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk NR31 6BE 
Phone 0493 602926 (24 hours), Telex 975408. 


28) 


SPEECH SYNTHESISER™ 


for ease of speech output creation, Everything you wish to be 














































a 


Vy 
GRAPHICS LIGHT PEN WZ 


The sophisticated graphics 
package includes a colour 
palette, nudge control for one 
pixel accuracy, brush choice, 
text handling and user defined 
characters 
It can magnify, shrink, 
colour fill and create carcles, 
rectangles, lines and curves | 

Complex pctures can be easily ‘edited at pixel level using 
a scratch pad which is magnified to the full screen 

There is pacture storage and retneval, and a pen calibration 
utility and there also an Amstrad/Epson compatible printer 
dump utiity supphed on cassette 

There 6% a cassette version for the 464 and a ROM 
version for the 464 and 6128 


Cassette £19.95 including VAT (464 only) 
ROM £29.95 including VAT (464 and 6128) 


« This simple to use speech 
synthesiser indudes a powerful 
stereo ampliher and two high 
quality speakers which greatly 
improves the sound quality of 
the internal Mono speaker 
» It uses the popular 5PO/256 
speech chip and has an almost 
infinite vocabulary ) 
«Its Supphed with a text to speech converter software 


spoken 1 entered in normal english without special control 
codes or characters making it extremely easy to use 

« The vorng of the words ss completely user transparent 
and the computer can carry on its normal running of a 
program whilst the chip 1s talking. The speech output from 
the SPO/256 6 mono and directed to both speakers 

There is a cassette version for the 464 and a ROM 
version for both the 464 and 6128 


Cassette £29.95 including VAT (464 only) 
ROM £39.95 including VAT (464 and 6128) 


HOW TO ORDER 

DK Tronics products are available in all good computer 
stores but may be obtained by completing the order form 
below and retuming it to DK’Tronics or by telephoning and 
quoting your Barclaycard or Access number 

Orders are normally despatched within 24 hours and if 
you have any further quenes concerning our products do not 
hesitate to givé us a ning or send us a large stamped 
addressed envelope for our latest free 84 page technical 
manual covering our Amstrad product range 


ee emer ie | 





TION TEST 





imagine 





Barbarian 
Triaxos 
Stormbringer 
| Thing Strikes Back 
Ball Crazy 


| The Final Matrix 


| Enterprise 


Nemesis the Warlock 
World Games 


| Strike 


Galletron 
Howard the Duck 
Cosmic Shock-Absorber 


Palace 
Anolasoft 
Mastertronic 
Gremiin 
Mastertroruc 


Gremlin 
Melbourne House 
Martech 
Masterronic 

US Gold 
Mastertronic 
Mastertromec 
Activision 
Martech 

Firebird 


41 
47 


48 
§2 
a2 
a3 
53 


54 


Mag-ic Max 


Having stressed the importance of originality last month, 
for Mastergame this time around we choose a good 
old-fashioned shoot-em-up. It brings to light another 





problem: how original is the conversion of an arcade 


game? 

lf it mimics the arcade version exactly should it be 
considered unoriginal? | don't think so because you can't 
presume that people have seen a game in the arcades or 
on another computer. What matters is whether it’s new 
to the CPCs or not and how well it compares to other 
CPC games. 

Mag Max is a good example. Although it's been in 
the arcades and on other machines for some time, there 
still isn’t much similar to it on the CPCs. It isn't very 





original but has all the elements a classic shoot-em-up | 


needs. 

Barbarian can't claim to have much in the originality 
department either, but it's the best combat game yet. 
As well as great fight action it has humour and gruesome 
graphics. There are a couple of crackers from Master- 
tronic, notably the conclusion of the Magic Knight games, 
Stormbringer. \f you want your world turned upside- 
down then Triaxos can oblige with antigravity puzzling 
and Thing Strikes Back with topsy-turvy bouncing. 








AMSTRAD ACTION 4] 








ACTION TEST 





BARBARIAN 


Palace, £9.99 cass, £12.99 disk, joystick or keys 





The advertising was sexist and it's yet another 
combat game, but surprisingly enough there's 
a lot of class about i. It's nearly two years 
since Way of the Exploding Fist started off the 
constant stream of combat games and it's 
possible that this coukd revive the genre. 

The concept is simple enough and hasn't 
changed since Fist. Two guys fight it out in 2D 
until one of them gets hit enough times. In this 
fight the combatants are armed with swords 
| and you've got to battle to release a fair 
| princess (yawn). There are three forms of 
| fight) one player against the computer in 
practice, one player against the computer for 
real, and two players. 

There are two different backgrounds for 
the practice fighting and two for the real thing. 
You can only play with two players in the 
practice mode, where the rules are also 
different. The four backgrounds are all suv- 
perbly drawn and detailed, adding a nice 
atmospheric touch. 

The fighters are all the same muscle- 
bound warriors but with varying flesh hnes 
and different-coloured jerkins. They are stun- 
ningly animated through 16 possible moves 
with many intervening frames. The moves are 
split into two types: movement without the Fire 
butten pressed and attacking strokes with the 
button pressed. 

The more defensive movement com- 
mands include forward and backward rolls, 
crouching, jumping and protecting the head 
and body with the sword. The attacks are very 
varied including a head-bun, web of death 
(spinning sword) and overhead chop. 
Whenever an attack contacts the oppan- 
ent a red flash indicates the hit. 











42 AMSTRAD ACTION 


Batata... 


This will reduce the strength of the opponent 
- it starts off at six and is reduced by a half 
for every hit. When no strength is left the 
fighter will collapse and get dragged off scre 


en by alittle green monster locking like a 
cross between a toad and ET. 

There is an even more spectacular way 
to dispatch opponents, which is not for the 
arene ae If you succesfully time a flying 

neck chop it will end the fight immediately: 
jour opponent's hisad Gist inte the air and his 


The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 
|] 4 detailed, atmospheric backdrops 
_) Fantastically animated characters 


SONICS 
| Pleasant tune plays throughout the 
acuon. 


GRAB FACTOR 
_| Delightful touches of humour 
Instantly playable with fast actions. 


STAYING POWER 83% 

[] Computer is tough and two players is 
always fun 

@ Still basically a combat game - a strong 
loniting factor 


iad RATING 








TRIAXOS 


Tnaxos translates as “three axes”. this game 
takes place in a 4=4™4 cube where il's easy 
to get disonented. There are 64 rooms in a 
4x44 cube. But the game has a possible |19¢2 
locations, for each room has three faces which 
can be used. This seemingly confusing state 
of affairs is at the heart of the game and will 
need plenty of thought and mapping 
The cube is a prison in which you have 
to locate a prisoner and get him out alive. The 
cube is also populated by deadly robot quards 
and <ther devious defences to stop you 
Rooms are plain and empty, showing only 
relevant features. What youll encounter most 
are Goorways\and robots. There are two 
fobots on Gach room face. There are five 
levels of robot Typesthat take the correspond- 
ing number of hits from your gun to destroy 
Robots of level 2 and higher will also pursue 
As well as your gun, which has lirmuted 
ammunition, you can ees and high 
explosives. The high explosives are particu- 
larly useful: you can use Ginen to Blow holes 
in the floor, which after a quick re-orienianon 
become doors. Other objects include a .e' 
pack, key and spacesuit, which will be needed 
You can move through doors and drop 
through holes in the floor -— as bong as you 
dont drop through two floors, that is To 





94%, | 
81s. | 


90 | 


Defeat 3 conenar apes 


VY? StepwAriolasoft, £6.97 cass, £14.99 disk, joystick or keys 









torso flops to the ground spurti 

gruesome sight isn't easy to achieve except 
against the early computer opponents. Irs 
really hilarious when it happens. The green 
monster wil appear once again. As well as 
dragging away the body he unceremoniously 
nha ie RNS 6 See 

require a lot of moves rather than just relying 
obviously be a lot more fun and unpredictable. 
Each bout has a time limit. If you leave a fighter 
unmoved hell tum to you and shrug 
his shoulders. 

The graphics and animation are 
unsurpassed, the music excellent, 
the action difficult, and the sense 
of humour great. However, let's 
face it: it's a combal game 
pure and simple. The basic 
concept and action hasn't 
changed at all since the 
days of Fist, and I find 
it hard to get excited 
What the qame 
is that it combines 
the graphics, animation, 
speed and gameplay of ailthe “" 
other combal games to make a very 
playable one. You'll be delighted at first, 
but with all the tarting-up in the world 
you cant disquise the basicgameplay. BW 






















FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 








rée-onent so that youre effectively walking on 
a wall, you need to find a face-lift. These are 
ovals in the middle of some rooms and 
transport you to the middie of one of the walls 





| The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 
| |) Some nice sprites and explosions 
| @ Most rooms are plain 


| SONICS 
_) Good tithe tune 
| @ Effects are limited 


GRAB FACTOR 84>, 

_] Love the 3D cube idea and its effects on 
oOMentahon 

@ A bit uneventful and confusing at first 


STAYING POWER 86% | 
Requires lots of thought and planning 
Plenty to explore, map and discover 
















AA RATING ——— 4 
An interesting new twist in a game that 
will really hook you 





ACTION TEST 


ey ee ee pee Se 
Lu See YOuUrse.) ihe gn 


holes will have 
concept takes a bit of 


eit: Lats Ee 





Okay a5 
remember wroich wall youre on 
youre headed 

eventual SUCCESS: Vi 

with which to biow 

map you can draw 


Se ee ee a a 
awk Ward LaLa LS’ 


Rooms contain 
come in handy. There's an eneroy restorer 
uo replenisher and a cloning booth 


life. However 


in c hi fy ut af 
= Owns yo 
are also nasty alien rooms where bar- . = EE Bh 
criss-cross the floor and deplete you | 

a a | te t : ° 7 = * . 

ifappea by eT id _—_ — This rays rhe 


its fairly simple in concept and ' oO So chree sides of 


to look at, the addiction and chal- , — 
; = <_f ce 


in the mental dexterity that has to b | | _= 
1¢ 3D cube and its proper- | anoofD 
sh around hoping youll | 


youve got fo 





L 


the room and the 


Coorwihys Meveared 


Panis 
how. Combine 


4 SU-Mminute 


and Youve 
? 


got an excellent gam BW 


FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 


a Delian Deer Boy 


i 





ACTION TEST 








qq =" Ss a ee 


= GREEN SCREEN VIEW 
* i * . + ' no escaping (nem in cored 








44 AMSTRAD ACTION 





ACTION TEST 











| The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 
Reasonably smooth, slow scroing 


| Lots of different, colour alien sp 
| 


4 eg eg 


SONICS 
| B Tithe tune DiS Only Once 


@ just zapping effects in the gam 


GRAB FACTOR 


he Lt i LILA eS Ss Ye er wR | fal 





wiack Datems 


|STAYING POWER 88637908 —— —_-svxwHeSeeRssea 
| Ins OF VENery In ine avens and § | 


Keeps ThIngs Interesting 


@ Guaranteed to wreck your 





cL] ad 7 = = a =, =, 
OOM -6In-lp ans lOO 1OT 


= ie | i. nl Det I " a i = Q 
hallenge will love this one 


AMSTRAD ACTION 49 





ACTION TEST 


Mastertronic, (1.97 cass, joystick or keys 


Ow SaaS Ss ee = SO ———— — 





aS SS | 





# MEIKE CHAN 








SECOND OPINION 
hie final Maamc Anoht game is not a 
letdown: the graphics are still highiy 


; Pay 1 Se ae , 
oefaled fioudn styl jack coeur) he 





F i i ai | a " . r rr a a i 
PuToyvarn re Fre Gd pha Fe SsYsrenmi reria lis Ht 





I | i 
ay pig I pel oh ee iow 
i harder Utlaranteed 


for manthe RpM 


GREEN SCREEN VIEW 




















The Verdict g 
GRAPHICS 65%. 
Some detailed backgrounds and 


Cnharacrers 


rs, aE a eine mealies 
B Generali; DOoOr use of COM 














46 AMSTRAD ACTION 























SONICS 


GRAB FACTOR 


. 
Ul Got ad Oreal sense 


ae Sr =a 
Cute tune from pers 


70°, 


ly a ool os 
. Dad Hee 


4 
ef hummer 
Se ee Pe ae 


i? F ] i 
A Rnaimanoen it a= eninvah|le ac over 
WINnGdIMalon i a& enjoyable as evel 


STAYING POWER 89% 


. ae oe = tt 
ro a roan aa, beh he 


predecessors. 


Sete, hee 
WCHner tien 


The puzzles are superbly worked out 


_AA RATING 


Hard to believe this 


Is a budget game - 


orilliant ! 








Gremlin, £9.99 cass, £14.99 disk, joystick or keys 


Nimrod's the name of the new character from 
Gremlin, and if Gremlin follows past patterns 
yOu can expect to see him pop up in more 
games. Nimrod is a Biopton - a mechanical 
ifeform - who has to rescue other Bioptons 
from the clutches of the Cratons. This means 
he has to enter the Matrix and find the hostage 
in @ach of the Matrix locations. 








see 





You can choose which location to land in 
and beam Nimrod scale to it. Each location is 
a maze of rooms, corridors and walls that 
cover several screens thew re in 2D and you 
see them from an unusual overhead angie 
They re quite detailed, ike most of the charac- 
ters that inhabit them, But lack colour and 
Variety 

Finding each of the hostages isn! easy 
Getting them out is even tougher. You're 
armed with one of four devices: three types 
of weapon and a thrustpak. The thrustpak 


allows you to fly over things but has limited 


fuel and cant be used by the hostage for a 
return journey. The weapons, in increasing 


THE FINAL MATRIX pan Neos cn no es 


order of strength, are a lazatron, megatron and 
megabolt, 

The weapons come with limited ammo 
bul the stronger ones are useful for dealing 
with Craton guards. It will take a number of 
hits with any of the weapons to destroy a guard 
robot. Even a megabolt uses up half a clip 

The robots have different effects. Some 
will shoot al you, weakening your strength: 
others just try to push you around. Worst of 
all are the mines, which are instantly fatal if 
vou bump them. There are also squares on 
the floor which can sap energy or bounce you 
about 

Things aren't all bad, There are refuelling 
squares, TV monitors that let you study a map 
of the location, bounce lifts to take you up 
steps and other handy construction blocks 
This 1s where the puzzle element of the game 
comes in, particularly when you've found a 
hostage 

Hostages will follow you around, but 
guiding them wp steps and over other ob- 
Stacles isnt easy. Youve got to make it back 
to your start square to lift off back to your ship 
All the hostages have to be rescued within a 
time limit - tough 

It's a mce idea for a puzzle/arcade game, 
and it's quite well carried off. My reservation 
is that t's rather difficult to get into and not 
too rewarding of good efforts. However, it will 
present an excellent long-term challenge. BW 


FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 


Rescue one hostage 


ACTION TEST 





The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 68%. 
_| Detailed, 3D locations and characters. 

M@ Poor use of colour 


SONICS 45% 


i No music just a few effects 


GRAB FACTOR 65% 
| Good features lke various foor pads 
B Difficult to get into. 


STAYING POWER 74% 
| Excellent mixture of action and puzzles. 
Many locations and all tough 


AA RATING 
Could be an excellent new senes. 








ENTERPRISE 





Melbourne House, £6.95 cass, €14.95 disk, joystick and keys or keys 


Here we have two ripped-off ideas in one 
game. The tithe is obviously trying to steal Star 
Trex s thunder, while the game is an unmistak- 
able Eiite derivative. Trying to match a game 
of Alife s calibre is brave. If you succeed you'll 
have a number-one hit, but if you fail youll get 
heavily criticised for producing a mp-off. 

Youre promised 5.2 billion planets to visit, 
which 1s all very well but. they're practically 
all the same. You begin the game orbiting one 
of them. You can enterthe atmosphere to land 
Alternatively you can accelerate off into space 
or hyperspace to another planet. 

Before landing on a planet you need to 
get some cargo to trade with. This seems to 
float randomly about in space, and you collect 
it just by flying near. The only other thing you'll 
encounter is police ships. There's no laser or 
shoot-em-up element which will disappoint 
many £life fans 





When touching down on a planet you 
have to fy the ship onto a landing strip, just 
like an ordinary flight simulator. On the ground 
the trading begins. An alien appears and starts 
rabbiting away. You have to try to sweettalk 
him and then transact money-making deals on 
your cargo 

Services are available on the planets for 
repairing and refuelling the ship. For the most 
part the inhabitants are unhelpful and un- 
informative, sometimes making no sense what- 
evet 


: The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 59% 
_| Nicely animated alien face 

_ Good spinning cargo in space 


' SONICS 29% 


@ Intensely annoying continuous beeping. 


GRAB FACTOR 64% 
| Conversations will interest you 
@ Hard getting anything done at first 


STAYING POWER 54% 
5.2 billion planets to visit 
@ You'll have seen it all after two 


AA Le 











To baldly go... where no wig 


I'M FINE, HOW ARE You? 
es ot: . 2a". 


- Bis 8. 2:.e4-4800) 2. 3 
RMAZE ME 





[ quite liked the game but its too rough 
around the edges to be particularly enjoyable 
The conversations don't develop enough for 
them to be worth including: you need e:ther 
a lot more complication or a more structured 
procedure to follow. | found it all got quickly 
repetitive and lacked anything to get your 
adrenalin going BW 


FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 
Find and trade cargo 


has been beloce AMSTRAD ACTION 47 





FILTH ARENT 
~ he 


CEA 


ACTION TEST 


CHRONOS 


Mastertronic, £1.99 cass, joystick or keys 


Shoot-em-ups seem to be flavour of the month 
This one's of the nght-to-left scrolling variety 
It's composed of six progressively more diffi- 
cult stages and an awful lot of aliens to convert 
into particle-incinerated space dust 

Your ship appears on the left of the screen 
but can fly most of the way across to the right 
However, you'll want as much warning as 
possible of ohcoming hazards, so most of your 


Even in black-and-white You can tell it 4 monocolour 


= i -—— a, ee — 
~s SS 


— = a 


_ rs 









ume will be spent on the lef. As you fly 


sedately through the zones youll encounter 
many alien buildings, floating platiorms and 
caverns, all of which are quite detailed but 
composed of just one colour 

Crashing into any of the landscape is fatal 
But more of a problem are the ahen craft that 
fly on from the right of the screen. These start 
off with simple spheres anc birds that fly 
straight and are easily dealt with by your 
forward firing laser. Amazingly, the aliens, 
yourself, the laser fire and explosions are all 
exactly the same colour as the landscape 
wow, what a programming achievement! 


As you progress through the zones the * 


aliens get gradually trickier and will stan 
moving around screen more. This can cause 
you problems, particularly when trying to 
manoeuver in a tight spot 

On the whole the game is rather easy 
your only problem is getting a tired fire finger 
The last couple of zones get quite tough. Bul 
this doesn't lift the monotony of the task you're 
facing. [m completely fed up with games that 
dont use the CPCs colour facilities; this one's 
plain ridiculous BW 


FIRST-DAY TARGET 5CORE 
25,000 


NEMESIS THE WARLOCK 


Martech, £6.95 cass, £14.95 disk, joystick or keys 


Al last Martech has released this game for the 
Amstrad. [ve had a friend GBHing my ear for 
weeks about how good it is for his computer 
So | loaded i with trepidation and high hopes 

You play Nemesis the Warlock. Your 
quest: to boldly go where no slightly animated 
cripple has gone before. Oh yes, and to reach 
the heart of Torquemadas empire. To do this, 
you must kill a certain number of your dement- 
ed followers - known, cunously, as Termi- 
nators -— on @ach screen. This will allow you 
to search around for the emt. 

Tou have a sword, which you can use to 
swipe blindly at the Terminators, and a gun 
You can use the gun only when you have found 
bullets for #. The bullets are hidden in small 
boxes, dotted around the screen. In every box 
there are |2 bullets. 

When you shoot a Terminator, its deflated 
body will fly into the air and stay where it falls 
This clogs up the screen a bit too much, 
especially after a firing fit 

At the bottom of the screen is a display 
showing you how many bullets you have left, 
how many more Terminators are left for you 
to shoot before you can go in search of the 
exit, and a graphic representation of your 
heart as it gets bled dry by the evil influence 
of Torquemada. A picture of Torquemada’'s 
face gradually appears as he gets stronge! 

[ felt that the graphics let this game down 
The animated walk of both Nemesis and the 
Terminators is jerky and uncoordinated. But 
im glad to say there are some nice touches 
in the animation department. When you shoot, 
the first pull on the trigger makes Nemesis 
pull the gun from his clothing. Every sub- 
sequent pull, until you move, shows the gun 
moving up from the recoil of the shot 

SOUnNG is certainly nothing to write home 


48 AMSTRAD ACTION we is an ex-Terminator 


about and lacks any realism Not all it could 
have been, but still not a bad challenge. CB 


FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 
Reach the fourth screen 














downloaded from a lesser machine wrth 


Ror reucte har evaitutls ~ RpM 


The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 
Detailed scenery and explosions 
@ Where's the colour? 


SONICS 
B Zapping noises only 


GRAB FACTOR 


No shortage of things to shoot 
@ Rather slow action 


STAYING POWER 


ox long zones to get through 
@ Too easy and lacks variety 


AA RATING 


Zz Not much imag nation went into this one. 





The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 
@ Fuzzy characters 
@ Drab repetitive scenery 


SONICS 


@ Average throat-cloggers 


GRAB FACTOR 61% 
Easy to get into 

@ Dead bodies clog up the screen too 
much 





STAYING POWER 69% 


Added difficulties anse im later levels. 
Tough task to complete 


: Ad RATING 











a == 
, . 


& 
a 












































ACTION TEST 


3 2 


50 AMSTRAD ACTION 


The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 
Excellent use of colour and shading 
Nicely drawn and anumated sprites 


| SONICS 38%, 


@ Not many effects and no music 


GRAB FACTOR 86>, 
Simple, original concept to get to grips 
with, 

Good range of bonus features 


STAYING POWER 8 | 
Gets much tougher as more alens 
arrive. 

@ Eventually lacking in variety 


AA RATING 


Great budget game that should please 
everyone 


THING BOUNCES BACK 


Gremio, £9.99 cass, C1497 disk, joystick or keys 


In‘fact Thing bounces back, forwards, straight 
up, Gown, off the walls, floor, ceiling and round 
the inside of your head, ending up with you 
eyeballs Going & greal impression of a tumbie 





ACTION TEST 


















i | won @& Se] | 
block the same colour as t & af fe 
i i iy aii " Coal 1 
ur anotne Vil 2p ped 
iT [néln ahd they ive [ hang 
} new Loui? 
wove uch fun while 
1] I | Wa 2 Way. ar 
there are. [he gap in the fabric of the game 
ecreens backdrop (hole) wil! ere some 
range als creatures. These fly around the 
screen bouncing off the walis, ceiling and floor 


until they either hit you or get fit by a bullet 


Of course its not healthy to be hit td (hege 


SECOND OPINION 
j rine Hos err ei Pernt acd 
PP ae a iF Paayt fir ‘Vf epee pri 
im et adam thal pingge! i 


lad LaTazry (leds i? elit Tai f Fil re es I iL 


acter with of? FTE CFP iy 


j F 
Et a ee Ce 


a] hap Fun iif } iat 


J 7 Ei a abe 
cop ie boded We ry I jas itil) om (ial 1 


GREEN SCREEN VIEW 


iif io cisnnauish Hear ee! eae lay 





dryer. He's still the springiest character in 
computer games. Having dealt with the Toy 
Goblin in Thing on a Spring he's got to shut 
down the Goblin’s computer that is producing 
evil toys. 

To shut down the computer he has to 
collect bits of its program in the form of disks, 
tapes, roms and listing paper. These are 
located in 11 game areas, which are multi- 
directional scrolling groups of 12 screens in 
size. Linking the || areas is a maze of pipes 
| which he you roll him along, picking up 
objects for points and avoiding nasties on the 

way. 
When he emerges on one of the playing 
areas Thing can get back to his springy ways 
| and go bouncing off like a mad thing. After 
baddoinging wildly around for a few games 
you'll realise that it calls for a litle thought as 
well The screens are cunningly devised so 





SECOND OPINION 














ay a 
placid Visage gets punctured it will dellate or 
e ground sill grinning its lithe heart oul 
I arent totally vulnerable. Other ob 


ects come tumbling down the screen and you 
re are extra lives in the 
extra bullet carsters and 
a spinning green tick that will automatically 
ir. There's 


“i580 @& SSaIeie thal cIvVes VOU SOme Weird 


{urn all the BIGOCKS to thé Mgnt cok 
headgear. It provides invulnerability but also 
objects. However, 
I dont recommend this because the face 
doesnt look half as pleased with itself as usual 

The layers of blocks arent always flat but 
come in steps as well. Ths can make lle 
particularly awkward when the blocks have 
Dut wo to three or four layers. Alter four 
layers have been completed you move onto 
(he next stage with more aliens. Afler every 
eight layers you get bonus points 


HOPS YOU CoOoulecing c ther 


Despite being very simple in ¢ 
surprisingly addictive. You've got to anticipate 
where the aliens aré going and try to avoid 
staying on the ground o1 
shooting them. Youve also got to 
and bonuses 

yesible, One tact 
lirst level, binld up plenty of live: 


far you can get 


concept its 


them by jumping 
grab all the 
going to gét as tar as 
lc is TO hang around Citi the 
and see how 


BxXiTa lives 


that speed and accuracy are not all: you've 
gol to choose the nght routes. 

Youll have a lovely time with all the 
transport mechanisms, if it weren't for the 
continual attentions of the nasty toys who 
attack you. There are blowers that acti like 
hits, conveyor belts, slides, bounce-pads, dis- 
appearing blocks, one-way valves and many 
more features. Best of all are the pipes: when 
Thing jumps into a funnel, he rolis along a pipe 
cartoon-style, like Sylvester Pussycat being 
hammered through a drainpipe. 

There are also doorways: they are activa- 
ted whe you pass through them and then 
slowly close down behind you. They can cut 
Off vital areas of a screen. So you have to go 
through them in the right order and direction. 

The toys all behave differently, but none 
of them is good for you. They may sap your 
oil reserves, without which you lose a life. 
be dealt with by just bouncing on them, but 
they'll keep coming wave after wave. Laser 

All levels have lots of green squares with 
question-marks on them. When hit from under- 
neath these reveal themselves as bonus points, 
extra oil, an extra life or an oil depleter. After 
a while you'll get to know which ones to go 
for and which ones mot. 

When you want to leave an area you have 
to find the exit door, which takes you back to 
the pipe system. You can escape without 
finding an exit door, but it will cost you a life. 







































Lin 
onvinced tha 

THT lace 

OMe SOT | 
psychoanalytical 
fool to make the user | 
Meaning, so youre bow 


you? The sort of « | play 
and keep coming back to BW | 
FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE | 

20,000 






The graphics are colourfully designed 
and the scrolling smooth. The title tune is an 
adaptation of the original Thing music but even 
nicer to sit and listen to. I found the action an 
emoyable mix of unfettered, wild spladoing 
boinging and some tricky bits of screen-map- 
ping. It's so easy to play and get hooked on, 
but completing it will be no easy task. BW 


FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 
25,000 











The Verdict _ : 

GRAPHICS 64% || 
Lots of colourful, well-animated sprites 
Good mult-direchonal scrolling 


SONICS 
Delighthul ttle tune 
Good in-game effects 


75% 


GRAB FACTOR 84%, 
Bouncing is as much fun as eve 
“ion but thought needed 


Not just fast act 


hl 
aS Wel 


STAYING POWER 82% 
Getting all the program will be difficull 
@ Tends to lose its appeal after a while 


AA RATING 


he 7° 9” Wo Fig AMSTRAD ACTION 5] 





ACTION TEST 


WORLD GAMES 


WS Gold, £9.99 cass, £14.99 disk, joystick or keys 


I know, its another one of those sporting 
games, but it is a fair vaniation on the overall 
theme, Tossing the caber hasnt been recog 
nsed by the Olympic committee yet, has it? 
Need | really explain the format? Oh, all 
night. You are an athlete, entered in the Worid 
Games. You must fly around the world, com: 
peting in eight strange events. The first is the 
weightlifting, in Russia. You choose your 
weight and start your lift. When you think the 
time is right, dip under the bar and push up 
if you think you have i! under control, jerk the 
bar up and try to straighten your arms and 
legs, When the judges are satished, they will 
light their bohts. You have the option of 
competing in the snatch or the clean-and-jerk 


The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 


Very nice animation in places 
Most characters have a lot of detail 


SONICS 54>, 
Nice tie tune 

GRAB FACTOR 
Practice option is useful 

@ 6128 life is tough without remote tape: 
control 


STAYING POWER 


67% 


74% 


Eight diferent events to compete in 
Tough high-score targets to beat 


AA RATING 





Next off to Germany for the barrel-jump- 
ing. Choose how many barrels you want to 
aftemp! and start to skate toward them. Left 
and right pushes on the joystick will push the 
skaters left and right legs 


SECOND OPINION 
Like Chris I long ago got fed up with 
sporting games, but still quite enjoyed 
this one. Events ike the weightifting and 
skiing need siall and timing. Log-rolling 
isa nice idea bul badly implemented. 
The others are average events wich you 
can get better af with practice but they 
don't really get the adrenalin pumping. 
Perhaps ifs time for another good oid: 
fashioned joystick-wrecking decathion. 


Eight events are all okay. 





Following these are cliff diving off Aca- 
pulce's infamous La Quebrada, French slalom 
skiing, log-rolling in Canada, bull-nding in the 
good ol’ US of A, caber-tossing in Scotland 
and finally, sumo wrestling in Japan 

What can [ say’ I got tired of this type of 
game after Track and Field in the arcades 
The variation in events with this one hardly 
engenders my enthusiasm. Still, there are 
enough mce touches to bnng a smile to the 
otherwise blank look on my face. The weight: 
lifting is the most realistic yet and is good fun 
tO practise, using the 


option. The log-rolling and the bull-nding 


practise one event’ 


annoy me, Dut you usually get the odd couple 
that do in this sort of suite CB 


FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 


Qualify in all events 


lacs bi 


200ks 








STRIKE 


Mastertronc, £2.99 cass, joystick or keys 


Ten-pin bowling is not one of the first things 
that come to mind when I think of possible 
computer simulations. Unfortunately, | think 
Mastettronic fell into the “need for onginality” 
trap with this one 


The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 
Good animated pickup of pins 
@ Drab scenery. 


SONICS 
@ Pardon? 


GRAB FACTOR 
@ Difficult to master 
a Pin pickup gets immensely tecbous 


STAYING POWER 52% 
Skill required to achieve any sort of 
competence 

@ Bowling is limited in its variety 


AA RATING __ 49%, | 
@ Too boring for me. 





52 AMSTRAD ACTION 





As with “live” ten-pin bowling, the object 
of the game is to knock over ten pins with one 

You control the line of the ball by moving 
the man on the screen left and nght at the top 
of the alley. When you think he is in the nght 
position, you press Up, and he will start his 
min up. Pressing Fire will make your bloke 


hold the ball ready to throw it. When you 
release the Fire button, he will let go of the 
ball. If you release the ball too soon, your little 
man will drop it. Releasing it too late will cause 
him to drop it on his foot. Serves him right 
The instructions go into great detail about 
the rules of the game. [ got lost when it started 


Wihat 26 Foo al 2 fuan wah @ Gover on hus hea 


ball. The inlay says, “Dont expect to masie 
the game after one try. | should be so lucky! 
It took me eight ties just to get the ball to rol 
down the alley 


simulations of it leave me cold. I liked the 
“blocky-tacky”. The real problem is 
speed: you don’ have fo simulate the 
tedious process of sitting around while 
the pins aré moved. do you? Take my 
advice and go play the real thing. BW 





talking about “turkeys” and stuff. [m sure it 
will make sense to you lf you are a bowling fan. 

Well, the graphics are blocky-tacky 
(transiafes as “not very good,” [ funk — £d) 
The sound is forgettable, but I think there is 
an attempt at a tune there somewhere. The 
only nicé touches are the lifting of the pins 
and the ball dropping on the foot. It's funny al 
first, but oh boy, do you grow to hate, detest 
and despise it CE 


FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 


Beal computer 


GALLETRON 


Mattertronic, £1.99 cass, joystick or keys 


Another cheapre to help your pockel-money 
last. It's a simple game but a fun one, You 
control a “Tiegyr’ surface skimmer, which you 
must use to blow UP COMmMMUnICaton satellites 
These satellites are dotted around an area 
called “No man’s land,” represented by 3D 
flick-screens., 


The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 62% 
Pretty and almost colourful explosions! 
@ Characters are small and monochromatic 


SONICS 42%, 


| @ Horrible title tune. 


GRAB FACTOR 66. 
Low of objects to shoot or pick up. | 
@ Rotational ship control 





STAYING POWER 69°. 
A long and arduous mission to complete 
Three levels of play 


AA RATING 
Another fine game for Steve Elwards 
credit list 


Your surface skimmer i equipped with 
quipp 


the latest technology. You have a positronic 
proximity blaster — a laser gun. You also have 
a neutrino magnetron pulser 

Movement is rotational. Each rotation 
amounts to a 45-degree turn left or right. You 
can thrust forwards or backwards. It is quite 
useful to be able to thrust backwards when 
confronted by an enemy missile zooming 
towards you. Every now and then, you will 





Small but detaled planet locations 





This is a simcity bia aliasetee oatet thet 
the price will disappoint few peopie. You 
won't get a mega-game bur i will provid 
Plenty of enjoyment and reasonable 
difficulty. [ preferred Steve Elward’s Back 
to Reality, bur tus isn't bad either. BW 


Dark colours — can prove awkward. 








come across a laser gate between two toll- 
booths. Shooting one of these toll-booths will 
blow up the laser gate, allowing you to get 
through it 

Dotted around are supplies; pick them up 





HOWARD THE DUCK 


Activision, £9.99 casa, £14.99 disk, joystick only 


What an incredible waste of oi] based 
products this Howard the duck life story has 
turned out to be. The film was hardly raved, 
and the game”! Well, read on my little ravettes 

Guess what? You play the part of Howard! 
Surprise surprise! Get out your dark shades 
and your King Teds. Not so that you look the 
part, bul so you see lithe-of the game! You get 
parachuted onto this island wots bin taken 
over by this mean geezer called the Dark 
Overlord. He knicked your best mates 
Beverly and Phil - for some dirty reason. Sull, 
you have beer challenged by him to come 
and rescue ther from his volcanic retreat 

The first thing you must do when you land 
is to find the back-pack you dropped earler 
Don't worry, it's not difficult. It's just round the 
corner to the right. Your only worry. is the 
Mutant Sime. You must take this at a running 
jump. If you don't clear it, it will drag you back 
to Where jumped from 

The next difficulty, is the water, which 
you cross with the use of the solar-powered 
jet pack which you just happened to pack in 
your back-pack. Once across the first stretch 
of water, you will encounter annoying litle 
Mutant Maniacs. These will try to kick you off 
the island. Use your “‘Quack-fu' to kick them 
off instead. Eventually, you will reach the rope 
bndge which you must cross whilst dodging 
the molten rocks which are hurled towards 
you, Once across, you are automatically given 


your Ultralight flyer. This enables you to fly to 
the top of the volcano. Once inside, you must 
avoid the nasty stalactites which the main man 
throws at you. When you have him in your 
sights, you must shoot and kill him. Even then 
YOUr task is not complete, You must shut down 
the volcano by flipping a lever. 

Do pardon the small injection of humour 
in this review, but I had to do something to 
liven it up. Not a good game. Graphics are 
indescnbably bad (Try - £d), jerky animation 
and poor backgrounds (thankyou). Sound ts a 
definite no-no. Playability cannot be expres. 
ged without cursing CH 


FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 
Visit the Volcano 





SECOND OPIN 
There were some nice ideas in the game 
but: they: aia traalada Wee aca 

gameplay. There isnt enough variety fo 
keep you interested, repeatedly kicking 
mutants isn't my idea of fun. I haven’ seen 
the film, and on this showing ['m rather 
glad, BW 











ACTION TEST 








by passing over them. They include fuel, laser 
eealls, extra lives and a bonus, Once you have 
blown up a satellite, you will be transported 
to the next area. Destroying nine areas will 
take you to Galletron. Once here, you must 
destroy the central powerhouse, which is in 
the form of two large Teslerons and a central 
communications dish. If you destroy all these, 
you have won the war 

The graphics are in a single colour, with 
very little detail. The scenery is drab and dull 
The gameplay is good, and easy to get into, 
even though the control of the surface skim: 
mer is rotational. Sound effects are almost 
non-existent CB 
FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 
5,000 





The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 36% 
B Dull and repetitive background. 

@ Sluggish Animation 


SONICS 32% | 





| @ Overly average 


|GRAB FACTOR 42%, 





Tough task to complete. 
| @ Repetitive start process 


STAYING POWER 27% 

@ Higher levels are too hard. | 

@ Too much luck involved in fending off the 
MMs. 


AA RATING 


@ Like the film, a waste of tape! 





cul AMSTRAD ACTION 53 


ACTION TEST 





COSMIC SHOCK-ABSORBER 


Martech, £8.95 cass, £14.95 disk, joystick or keys 


fa A mm a i imo me on fh me “a = Pee ra re in x by a al pte noe ile an 7 Doria woe a 1 Tt. a 1 
Be | ld Jd g 4 Lit ' Pi a ek | =| me ta ta TT up i Fe Li C hw ced LA lh oe || Hl i | a ee | iB Tee Leta 
F oe, -_ ee KF iv Ss tr A | . ore rr af a, She Ta apomen ff | = 
rau Pie Pilate & a te i = 1 he Dias crea, ik LS Ae iol = Hrs Bib E if a 
L 4 L 
t | ' t i wy a on ee een rirce Trae A = hin or | Le r fornia t aa met 
a if z L# I i F it f yal} Lives oe a VG sh al Ft Ly i E } 1 a i} me Pd uy d a ‘a aa 
™ a ke F Ee | 4 a] J F fi fus # a ae a i E lies | : ciga rt 
fay aS wre : paws i : CHES UTEE seat Tbe 7 Pavey iM ep Ly as ei ae 
7 
| i - 7 a i 
BC] 1 1. ROO!G TT if AGU cl Dt aes [- ice fe. a Se at lé Tile I hid 
+ amuall  aay | F ¥ F F F : i T tome 1 F ry + ea ; rfl I lek ra 
Li hs F | 4 i ' | i bal i rs | Be Fis “Bak | Cy yee TT 1 & i E L LE 1 bd iu PLE he 
F | 
Da ie 12 


—j fo 


f 7 a i ie 
Le 12 | Lew erie Puts WEIL Laps ACIS! Wave 
after wave of alien craft of different tare} arse: 
and sizes. Tou start off with just circles flying 


at you, followed by tie fighters (remember Star 


| F i mat i Tae a We | FW a Pay ee, Peale! =) ah eo : ge 4 Fl 
vars?) ol eee Bird reminiscent oOo alargiider| 
Fur | i eee i i a oT] hE ie 7 her pa ‘Ti tT a 
uh Se ee = PE bag Se ee | WOT] i yo i 
™ ; 7 As rs -4 eak ry 
MUCH In ine Denavioul st ving straignt a 
i 
aH 
| in ¥ rT SMD ard Oo (ry to 
santre the aliens. But there arent al hits 
L = 1 " i iy aa flee = a | i 
ine be 7, 2 aie i DOTei bes 
t f | rm = cr ees] ' 1 e 
Lite a a i 4 a i dan we | ] i 
w i 1 Pe 7 7 a = ta “T r , TIF 1 | re 
aE Lb ork Dig Siing away and fu Le ee Pe ee 
= 
. iF LF | tR= fede = a SF ar “haa el 
| [al if Al if im Li LoS LILLE Pathe bh r= 1% aL sa ¥ 
. = a i | aaa | air 
i 1 Lit | ia wre [ "i [ - ‘o=/be a Le 
f omh = 1 
i t Lae. 4 4 = Le 
td 7 = - 7. a a 1 
fou have to destroy a set number of ships 
i i k ul 4 ne a, we ma re Fug iy f r 
moe] reas eacn succesn AT el ‘Ww @ 
hg | 1 [oo = rm . ¥ a | 
ree Ls | ol Bie s Lali : iy | a 
mI i i = oul 1 
am ¥ They TvCKl an On ibd picate 
ffs k - ; + 
ee! i E mm is Ba es | pha | a 
z F - fa 7 Py Fr 
1 reépall Teen Where (DPeres a CITCUW Gia 
Dil i a e nven hive seconds to study I 
f ‘ 
La rhe LiTt r more of ihe componeni 
a A = oo | bso | 
f Ved. TOU Nave to repiace it Will if 
& 





GUNSTAR 


Firebird, C199 cass, joystick or keys 


There always seems to be a market for a 
left-nght shoot-em-up, which is just as well 
hecause soltware houses keep producing 
them. They've been relegated to the ranks of 
the budget games and rightly so but still 
jrovide cheap enioyment. Thus one trom 


ij 
I 

} i oat ot aan a) = ee ao ee oe 
Firebird i live-stace Hattie against YVericnls 
a 


The first attack wave is made up of 
mete alien fighters which fly down and 
across the screen doing an occasional turn 
The 4¥ shoot bullets as well Avotd them: collid 
Ing with them or the ships will lose one of your 


three lives. Hang around blasting ships for 


The Verdict 
GRAPHICS i long enough on this stage. and it will clear 


Colourful ships and explosions lating you progress to thé next stage 
eee oe " : r : : = 
Ba Dimeult t ie hs aliet bullets Here ea | have i Aye | asieroidas wh el ng 


SONICS 
B Zapping 


ellects and explosions study of the asteroid patterns. You can't shoot 


" nom || Pes ri | = 4 
(her: a cousion is fatal 


GRAB FACTOR 56% tages three and four put up 4 static group 


Stages are initially Tule toudh of gun turrets nat bey 
i” Return 16 stage one When You 


shoot at various angles 


a Fr = 
die rou have to hit @ach one a 


STAYING POWER 48», 


@ Five stages doesn't provide enough 


to des troy it, Withoul ettinng hit Woursell 


Le 


Variery ang do the whole thing again. All this doesnt 
— make for a spe exciing game ust a 

AA RATING eo hog-standard shoot-em-up. The graphics are 
m@ No points for onginality colourful, But the  aandis iS repetitive and 





94 AMSTRAD ACTION te seen power hair on a lavas 


" * = 7 rf 
GcoWwn (he Screen al aiijerent speeds, Lx MIciING 


a | 
28 a in between them takes good timing and some 


number of times 


| 
L sa he ne —eheatetts ie fatal a hele aah hale) Soe 
at tate ilVe Boe i SIT] | oi od ea Manoeuvre 


with a mothership to refuel, You then go off 


somewhat frustrating BW 





An average game with some ee 
graphics and pleasing musical ditties. 
The task, which involves a jot of alren- 
rapping, tends fo get repetitive though. 
way 
GREEN SCREEN VIEW 
No frrouble in this department 


The Verdict 
GRAPHICS 


7ood use of vectors 


designed screen and windows 


SONICS 62% 


Reasonable title tunesand zappy effects 


GRAB FACTOR 60° 
Circuit-board puzzle adds variety 


@ Lite skill in blasting 


STAYING POWER 56% 
Lots and jots of aliens to plough through 
@ Oh boy, does it get repetitive 


q 7 F i 
Wien Trequently 


| 
my 
= | 


Lea 


CCT 





FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 


Lead 


SECOND OPINION 
The graphics are excellent and sound- 
effects bearable, Unforrunate!y Gunstar ts 
let down by ane major design Aaw: say 
you reach stage 3 and die, you go back to 
stage J, So frustrating. Still at £2 who's 
complaining? RpM 


Aliens on several levels are hard to spot 


<9 af E-< « 
a" lh Ng 


THE SACRED 
ARMOUR OF 








AVI@sbury, 


stephen Stokes ofl 
Bucks, has poked Palace's game 


giving you invulnerability. Enter it 
using Method |, but take care: the 
radiation can still 1 get you 


é 
P re 
Ls j Fa. i 84 

ry R20RG i, e 

‘J ef Ll i Price WAL i, 5 
‘0 ERT i f ga =hRFe@ TO GBF 
=f me j POE Fis. ot tS 

D WENT o d bceee 
4_ TA O1,88,88,ca, 38, f°) ,e 
‘ao oATA O0,11,64.08.1e,1 

'y ic 28,00, Fer 
90 DATA 94,00,21,00,0',22,95,08 
p@ PATA Lf ,00,3¢,88 ‘ 
i? GATA ; Es ~a8 80 

@ iT oF, B4, oe, 10, 58,88 
1 OATA h od 69.49 ,69 





Fly Spy 
Richard Aplin, the author of Mas- 
lertrome's Fiy Spy, phoned us to 


the cheat mode 
ne wrote into the game. All you 
have to do is pause the game and 
[ype in a number between | and 
T to get the following cheats 

l You can fly through walls 

2 Infinite fuel 

2 You can pick up any object 

4 Infinite laser shots 
5 | 
6 


et everyone in on 


Infinite lives 

Infirute shveld 
7 gst you the teleport code if 
s Control with the T key 
0 Takes OU 


Tou La IE - ii S 


back to the game 


Dick'n’Bob check out your tips, hacks, pokes and game-busting 
could win an entire issue's Amstrad Action Raves! So why not pap your latest gem for 


AA to test! Send to: Cheat Mode, Amstrad Action, 4 Queen Street 


Asphalt 


Tips on the Ubisoft car-wrecking 
game come from Gearee Britton 
of London SEZ! 

Genera: learn the general 
Wave patterns hitting the 
enemy when you see 


Toure 
circulal 
flashes on their sides and from 

Motorbikes: can be mined or 
shot. The yellow biker should 
always be mined 

Sidecars: At first they seem 
tricky but t ey 
the side of the road 
to the edge so that they can! get 
past you, then you can 
destroy them 


always Come on 
Move close 


#asily 


Cars: because of their size 
Vulnerable (o mines 
and the same tactics as the side 
cars. The big ; Cal 
with the burner on the back. Try 
to aftlack fim from an angle and 
beware when it's destroyed from 
crashing into il 

Machine-qun: there's an un 
fortunate pause when the ammo 
is being replenished. So alter a 
wave if there's less than 


theyre more 


lO shots 


quickly waste them so youre 
ready for the next attack 
Mines: must be dropped 


Quic Kiy and accurately. Too late 
and the target will drop away 


Firepurners: not as impres- 
sive as they first seem. AVoId 


using them 

Protection: the rear is by far 
the most vulnerable and is difficult 
to protect. The sides can be quar 
ded by shielding against the side 
of the road 


Poke method for tape 


All this month's Cheat Mode tape pokes use Method |. If you 


have a 664 or 6128 first type 


itape. Rewind the game tape 


to the beginning. Now type in the poke listing. Then type 


9UN and press Enter (without using the key marked CTRL or 
Control). Press Play on the cassette deck, then any key on 


the main keyboard. The tape should now 


in the normal way 


slart to play through 





CHEAT MODE 





ploys. The best ones 






BAI II 


BMX Simulator 
Phil Howard o! 
Nottingham, h 
heavy pe Kir 


Mapperley, in 
as once more had a 
17 session. Code Mas 
ters cheapie is the first to fall, Phil 
supplies you with a Method | poke 


that Tives YOu iniinite time to 
complete each circuit 
Ls 
=] Fi v f Lé 
5 Act 
I f i i 
i} 4 a 
; | rs Hy a ade Bk 
f@ Data A» Je Fe i 18 at hee ee ae 
i . a r 7 1 ; : r : 7 i f | 5 i a ' ' j 
-2 DATA c3, 4,24 @ Poe sar WEI 
= ll a | Z ca | a = i 
4 : = a. i 7h oh 4 b a a 4 F L 
ry ATA Oi P ! [lak i LT Ge 
: , Lik @ i 5 A | a, i i = | 
: ry i a 1 - Ek 5 . ie | ae 
el A 
A rt - 
13 e rt PE | Vi 7 
iat a Ee a bk i 














Glider Rider a oki ‘ Gu : 
Macte’ 5 

an Mi +e a had the — 

{gat er tact Tt! 
chev'e ed off a 

\ne anh Tea 

4 should hav 

pide 


AMSTRAD ACTION 55 


a ey 4h ut P UEE ets 


CHEAT MODE 


Football Manager 

Lee Gatiss of Sale, Cheshire, has 
an excellent cheat for this game 
of pensionable age which has 
some of the worst graphics [ve 
ever seen his, & What, you 
qcoOooo00: 

Save the game data, or take 
Your @xisting saved game data 
and load it into a word-processor 
(we loaded it on Protest). It should 
present you with a nice neat file 
which you can fiddle 

The first line of data contains 
the following information 
First number number of team 
(team numbers are listed later in 
the data) — 
Second: how much money youve Another poke from ERpM. This 
got time its for the disk version ol 


Third: how much you owe Reakiors shoot-em-up. Inhnilte 





Fourth: number of games played lives and varying degrees of vul 
this season nerability are the flavours of the 
Eighth: number of seasons played day. Type in the listing and save 
so far it to a disk (it can be the Killer 
Ninth: the division you're in fing disk). Before running remove 


Eleventh: number of FA Cup mat the options you dont require. Fo 


ches played acl fae i BITit ij} r | a ru don Py a i | ahigal 
Sn fins a dnieoetanes ap Ocean's 
Thirteenth: skill level n@rability to Bombs. leave out line 


care of the film has been 

subjected to humiliation by Nicho- 

or f = diel las Pavia. Infinite lives ara wp for 

" grabs, Enter the poke using Meth 

trad Aci od |, But tak@ Gare if you Use a 

. eee bh or 6) 28: several data ines must 
1 READ af be altered See below 


Fourteenth: team morale. ol) 
Last: the manager's name 

The next 64 lines of data are 
the team names, You can’ change 
them quickly from here rather 
than in the game as a whole. The 
two numbers following the team 





name refer to their playing strip Ne itis ‘oematele Cot bee tap 
and change stnp ibn : amici ecs | e * by * los 

Next are the player details Hes : aa Act Auguat 
made up of the following infor : ' 2 Soh : '@ DA poh tl, 16, Bt a8 
mation which you can alter how % heron aed s: iQ. pa 4,00,67,21,¢8, 68 
you like za" 10 bs 0,23,,36,00,25,3 
First comes the players name ! : Be af i 1, 38,00,¢3,08,5' 
Second figure will be 0, l, 2 or 3 yin cheellipe igre: +0 b,22,36,66,25,3 
0 means the player isnt in you Z , ba 1,48, @0,7),a0 
squad, | means in the squad but 
not selected, 2 means selected to PN 
play, 3 means injured 5 
Third figure: value of player n ; Infinite lives for Mastertronic' 
Fourth figure: energy rating ig sa budget shoot-em-up. The man to 





Filth figure: skill rating wi | thank if Daniel Underwood 34! 
i 
L 


The last set of data refers to from Chicwell sex. Use Method 

ee ee ee art ee ‘a L r Tf Nea re ert aye Dee] 

the division, who's top and who's | an i ae 
=a . : it oi: f t : a r } ; oO ral Pil : [a 

bottom. The middle two numbers : pies . io 1 n. iid 
an, a Pe ee hs tertonic s cute character is immo, 

reier (oO goals [oT and against | , ipa rasan Lom LANE 

V 1 j i: a aie hal ne Wont tall Ton | 
ch wher omething knocks 


nto fim) thanks to Ian Grainger 


| feo ‘a tae TT wir = Te re FFL 
OW Leas Meal | , bree pea e bhp ke By 
i a = rig yr ar 
moves. Try to kill an alien in fron 
of a wall of growth. This allows mt? A 
you to clear the wall while keep Af" sennterereereeee”  LAGG 
ing the dead alien in view, and no | PORE wAU3G,4 Td 
other abens will set off your track “ aT Ef 7 
eT "7 f ! a 
You ll need to use both char 62 NEX 


acters to Clear all the aliens anda e PORE 6 | 





growth ust switch when one ie 

rings low on ammo. Once youve 1 DATA 40176,00,48240,080,40 
PR Tonks from VWaisall read a withouw firing a shot. to room 247, got the first company message jus! CE PATA SOc aly 
previous batch of tips for ust before the Queens chamber. switch control to one of the four '@ bal Oc? 01,500) ,a8, 4008, a0 
Electric Dreams game and thinks Then repeat for one other charac- characters at the start and youll i fA 40ec,00,4044,a0 
his teil is puch siunpher ter Now blow the door to the get the socond montage com 1 vf av 

Ripley quickly, chamber and kill everything that pleting the game OETA GTS? owe! 
1 


96 AMSTRAD ACTION 





CHEAT MODE 


Auf Wiedersehen, Monty 
Be careful when you type in this 
Method | poke. Leave oukall REM 
Statements, GF it Wont work 

Nick Pavis of Rugby, War- 
wickshire, has been busy on Neil McCauley and Antony Por- 
Gremilin's gatne. You can choose ter of Chatham, Kent, have bump- 
fo remove crushers, have infinite ed heads and produced a poke 
lives, have the air tickets in your for Konarrus’ shoot-em-up 
possesion or be a super-mole Enter it using Method 1 for 

Some of the data has REMs double laser and missile fire. You 
following to indicate what action will also have a shield, which 
the data performs. If you don't should help you somewhat on your 
want infinite lives then leave out }Ourney 
line 130, for instance 















Nei i 
| Wiegergenhen, F i t We yaa ant 
i ly i k frad a i Aug oi 
i Laat i ] ft £ i a | peg 
T ij k i j\ Ely " 4 61 at 1 
Lt AEF i} J HER ii i KT i 
E F P a , 3 ho EM P Fy | i 
| f iH bh EWY r Sly kpe sy 
} P B40 B EWV Syey7) 
4p ,OB,@8, pa,c8 B ENV 7,18 1.8.1, 18,7, 18 
| BM DATA Oe,01,cd,85,0¢,¢0 MG ENV Gye ye yt pte pep lyn yd 
PP DATA 01, 19, Beyer 08, 80,ae 19 DATA Ta,be,21,42,83 180 ENT =8,5,0,),2-°1, 1,2, 1, 
| SO HATA PG, e5 27, 80,0b, e821 ae ea i Q oe ia 7 aan 8 
WP OAT! 19,02)85581,07, G8 ,05 a Rata ae ce ao cGA bel 16 485 REAL 
MO OATA 21 nb M2 yest 24, ee aie yen ow Ree We, celles Shai hail ea 
VO pata ct, hyde bd, c9 Canyon) see “i” ‘ae ONTh boot) .23,4,768.9,11 
a MENCRY S208 (ca RATER 34 bead Bd oko adtat be sO ATA 12.13,15, 16.18.26 .26 
‘SR FOR »- 40600 TO SREAB: READ as aN ia he dai ta Loah"tnenesia’lecada: 
| EERKE + VARESE! eas22 NERY ‘40 DATA je 5, 36,08 60 OPENOUT“y": MEMORY 999 
2° | Pee tickets ') LOAD"NEMCODE”, 1000 
(AB LOnS "bebe: CALL BBETE ‘0 DATA 21.18,85.36, ae SD POKE EQGR2.212°POKE B9GMA, E20 
lf vou own either a 664 or 6128 pole 98 FOR Te558 10 FER; 
machine, than type in thiBemajor (148 DATA ci,88,60,+ POKE &, 0: WENT 
a makang the alv@nalons Craig Winfield of Under Hill, it at 
shawn below; Wolverhampton, has pointed out 
SRiteratiene ‘or 664 oc ghee that the command PoKe 6e8, 22° will 
ats 1Sieoes 21,1! ,0 Wee give you infinite lives in the Monty 
OFOATA 20B 072,45, 11,2185 game. just type if in belore rin- 
\OSRRee Geeeteds or, f3,cF ning the game — tape only 
Here's a welcome poke from Kev- e i, TT de rE Ag TT gh Sat Owes Chee Ls ee 
in McCaughey in Bangor, Co 2 SATA 00,88,I ‘O2,73,60,80, 847% 20 FoR fehagoe TO bee 
Down. lt gives you vVarous meth p pAie ee er A aB READ AGS See eee a Poe 
ods of cheating in both parts al I sO: pc) RO, Le jVE hel! el Latah della i 
Imagine's shoot-em-up. Use Meth @ ATs 40,C0,¢ DO tg TE MT hI OIF N26 THEN WEESREAD AR 
sd | and blast away to your heart's : B24 HES ARO AER PRIAT ERAGE IM 
ontent ! ATL 1 : i, ie 
The first listing is for Ann é nN Chee a: 
Moves part on fou Can have , is eh 
mmunity from bullets or enemy hal hala o OATA 8 OE St cl AR a, 11 hl O8 
Tait (OT Dot ang intinite hives BTA FS, 20 pi Bye t bS89 BG GATA OB 00 ,58,176,€5,81,8C, PL 
: b i 72 DAT A358, 27,4568,4 08 Hota? 
trey Mave ; | WFINIT 7 5 0 pata JE, 41,8C,21,48,01, 8380 
? ey w rue (4S, =" "Ts | a 401,274,827, 55.48. rs 2p.t 
"a ’ = eT. il x Z a . ae & 
f WG: CHE=2 fe: ® \ BULL T Bi 7. 2 
a 2 [=hSRe a ERSCLEFTS( TS 2° hy OD CATE OG ,58 0:26 ,€ 2 hee 
PREAD a3 : £'483 At FE £20648 7B DATE ~f 1,8, ~F 22 f | 
Le wth HE=CH mm! BOM EWEN a L 47,868, 82,¢e 2, 62F1 | 
h <8 THEN Wee: | ONT pTRAPT ; PRESS (LEFTS B pata 48,(0,67,08,00,21,1£,05,6350 
He<> AMOUNT TH RINT ; : THEN Pie Tne a» oG DATA 38,86 0,67 ,88,81,88 0267 
ERROR IN DATA LIWE eh AD CALL BABES 8 DATA FG,ED,49,36,09,21,09,92 0481 
ELSE M=8 THEM CHKS@ri=L+Te ve TA f7, AF, 67,88, | 
of NEXT | a - 2 Y CATA BD FSCS, 35, A: , 350 
a ee , oe a0 ine second hsting, for the a Riek £401 ee sk ee - 
(Gaebler eet dette ind eta ea hace second part of Army Moves, gives pe Ml Aika Pe a ah Tae 
' US . (neu 90.09. 4 infinite men liens ere ee ; aT 
@ o4TE E b #2 ,26, 80,00, 73,48 8209 Sy Ke BcCaughe BAGS, 2 
B DATA 27, 86,41 81 E08) 5E 5b bee , 43 é é t &7 e58 €3 aera 





AMSTRAD ACTION 57 


CHEAT MODE 








scooby Doo 


Mad Monk (7) fresh from the 
asylum somewhere in North Staffs 
has sent in a weird batch of pokes 
for Elite’s cartoon-like game. Re- 
move the pokes you dont want 
Disk only 


BE the wy Weak 
B OPENOUT MEMORY B16C 5 
fo iUSeR, LOA gr", RTCA 
: 38 LOAD" SCOdE2”  BSbee 
Into the Eagle's west LO POKE £7029:8C9 ‘reneve sont 
Glenn Pinnock «of | | SQ POEE 740, 0C° pate ty 
68 POKE Ai " wide ladde 





Short Circuit A OATA £1,c9,46,21,08,b¢,11 4 


Peter Featherstone of Leeds has 


sent in a couple of pokes for i ii Aare jg gpelgle ge 
Ocean's search-n-shootgame.The .., ..-. .: 5. s: 0s. 35 4, a0 
first poke is for part one of the sre ae ee gly ha a bs 
game = which unlocks doors and fi a Neh inal 
prevents certain security checks fale Oa eS 
The second poke, for section ; SERENA ae ep a 
two, gives No 5 invulnerabilty to Sa apa aa Ae ee 
everything but water and mudpits 1a moet weMORY 1474 : 
Both pokes use Method | a a al a at 
k COEBE BB! PERG af 
1" Short Cirewit (ot 1) -- tape 30 POKE f,VALC"E™ aS): NEXT 
2" by Peter Featherstone LO CALL GeEge 
t Amatraead het August &§ BG DATA Se ch, 3¢,e2,39,¢@7,14,be 
1 MODE 1: MEMORY ThThe At 11@ DATA 13,39 ,21,0¢,0b,11,40 
e@ FOR *RBERS GREGG: READ of GE DATA GB ,ch,a7, 39, 30,08,52,88 
30 PORE #,WALCTE"+aS): WENT 0 DATA O2,21,65,05,22,01,02,12 
4 CALL RBEBE 0 DATA f1,c9,d0,21,00,07, 71,44 
OO DATA Se,c3,52,e2,39,21, 16 ,b0 O DATA 8,cod,40,0¢,50,¢3,32,'t 
76 /Be 
04,11 
#,s2,! 
e,c3,8a 








Infirute lives and permanent use 
of the map are provided by Ste- 
phen Stokes for Mastertronic’s 
game. Enter using Method | 


oe Fien i Ebs ee oe et 
= - = a ore Z S i 

P ‘th, Steppe nike 

é ' Seetran ber r ii 5 

i 


@ a=beree 
eG @EAD wi 
oe iF vos" e” THEN COLL GOFel 
£8 POKE 0, VALG-G**yi 
78 ata+]:G0TO 20 
62 3AT O,)' rG,f 
70 DATA 21,c8,O¢,cd,83,bc,c¢ 
BO BATA be 21, fb ,a6,11,6% ab 
9@ GATA Be, 78, ec,! 
128 DATA Se,88,3 7O0 
11g OATA ‘60032 ,4 st) "maf 
ee OATA ¢3,80,08 


58 AMSTRAD ACTION 





[t's that Peter Featherstone chap- 


0 FOR f28GE08 TO BESO: READ af 
x@ once more. This time he has ,, . ppg eae 
|! t ie ; i i o § i= 2 


delivered a prevent-Sweevo-from- .. .,,, prea ne @ | 
rusting poke for FTL s game Use pete i 


Method | ‘ a Mee ce 
i . a Pial re ,PG oe 
H : Bi Af GATS 21,27, be, 11,47, 96,810 
2 “Foi. is a # h, aT PP,# be @e,ff 21,548,171 | 
7 ws " hugust & of pata lA. a.4t bc, 01,40 | 
g F HOUT MER ai iG O4TL ce, of 4 Pra: 
@ LOM POKE £663 ,8C3 fO O4TA 36,35,33,32,28,36, 
0 PORE £866,8: FOKE BGG? 08 2 DATA 38,55,34,2% | 






Mastertronic s graphic ally superb 
MAD game has been hacked by 
Peter Featherstone Infinis te lives 
and bombs have been supplied 
You can fire a bomb even if 
is one already « on the screen — the 
first one will disappear, mind 


. 
ape ce 2] 
ieee 





; Le Ta dwg . 
ra 
§ FO? (<RSEOR TO bBE?3 
10 READ al 
L@ PORE * VAL [ £ 
50 NEXT 
40 CALL BeEOO Several people have also contact- 
192 DATA 21,08,468,11,88,2 ed us with a tip for the Master- 
ig DATA 3e,14,cd,a1,bc,358 tronic shoot-em-up. When you've 
oO DATA f3,21,14,de,22,24 got a high score type jing it bat 
38 BATA 68,c¢3,08,40,a07 33 into the table and a new option 
8 GATA 66,9¢,37,00,80,33 Will appear on the menu This 
6G BATA G7?,Od,ct,46,276,80 gives you a meqgalaser 


This month’s winners 
This month's winner of the big prize is Peter Featherstone. 
Runners-up are Neil McCawley, Nicholas Pavis, Stephen 
One person not getting any congratulations is Colin 
Ward, who nicked two pokes from ACU. Apologies to Justin 
Garvanovic, whose hard work Colin copied. We now have a 
Ti hod of checking for Justin's pokes so don't bother sending 
copies of them to us: we'll probably send them back 
accompanied by two guys with baseball bats. 





















































A TY) meg —E 
F | oF i rat | 
z= yy — ai i aad i. a 
if 
j 
i 
j 
i 
j 
i 
: _ — ] 
et — — r= _ - —— = Ae oe ] i er. kL = Pi a _ 7 r. i a | L a 
Ty Sheth ] heel bin wie 8 a POUN GIN, and tat is th at 
= eos | ~, ‘x mm oi =” - mg =, = 
Thie month Sila « jouble: In ye launch I Ucn Td ing interest. The Pug sat down and foun id t Ve 
PRES FRPP PEA EE OS F Pe = of ts UDI = nec P| cn | PF Pe oe : ey , ae as ae 2 
Paha ferere " mS = , ; eal a <i Sa ee 
“ie = - r Tf 5 Mach 1 “aT | rind. Lr dit Ory ar hand, thi 
a new label offering two game: for £7.95 Is Double derege trees rg tice en ry the 
a rk : il q } if § F b F i ra Pe . t J Fp ae ae Se = . a ep 
eet ; = — = 4 f 1) ee - aa i ji 5] TL Cover almos i ¥ location 
- Pa | i ' T F = | ri F | ay aa F' al. q ik Pe 1 re ry 7 = 
| 20/0 reo “Lal)6| 6©LLFTE JF ig | ail | uP Lr | fi POL on, FE wi arir os = : 3 Pa, -— hewew ie, ae ae eat ‘he : mes | ee 
ope ey = an if 5 Post (fl bet pie ed or 7 ] | ni Ee | oe) 8 | ] fat a - i ee | ee La i a 2. a «. 
. ' ; e a | alii ct | =e = i — J ——| 
La = a 2 2 f rf a -* = . ae ss , + = mi = ; : ' 
fa pe nes ri e td og Hews. 4. a af aire ‘| J t h t Ls | 
\ =. adel EP ae = iil c k rl ol oot Pee eS 1 1 ha gree oh Layee roa . ! 
7 - PEt : eae | 
< c Dn | i : be 1 > : ’ ie, T ey r ¥ ' Ry pean = ae 7 q 
4 , SEY FG = Tle il OUWOFPeL Pi THe ) De Paced ads FTOMM 7. ATOOramMMnG Dor at View, ine @: Liver | 
j a= i —fia-i- pert s = Ei ‘Le ae 
~—. ik eet ~ ie Lt age 7 a j aa i TF 2. Ca], =e 
i 7ersons Unger tne age of sixteen | eu anc t ai go0d (and Dad) Poin: Ics 
y a a ; Lae ore! “agers i was - a ee Se 
7 rr ma a ee ‘ i wh Cm abl st OF }*) Tw ne i 1*,2 1S : ally | 
Ve! Pidl ULE te ie stait Je InN? ; —— nee ges Many . 
L : = 3 Jay 7 So. 7 ee ee ee 2 i =F 4 cm 2 a Se a a a 
a) | rs [= J / ate Bao — bee 1) a) a I + rl ee  Thetess rly at ar taker | 
0’ fer 16, car tél JL) el iA= ainost > Se ee ae — warily =YbS iat 
i, = aig f F ; ia = i > 6 | _—. 
ea F CS ee oe 1 Ties | Te le fa a + to Mose a lf the ¢ ch acters 





srest) ¥ tho | mM ve attra actively 





uF a ny — ws i 
a P ita bia fecha he er rj LT din a) THe Ss. nae 
od P Seok es 
“ x, L © 5 = is a - =| : a od J = a =u a 
= — Bs : =) = 4 ' pe, = #t 10) a wt el Liv quile different - a) WU nT LS VLE L 
— be F eee | a i. a= ie. j =i = * a . " 2 — yo pa Alas a 4, 
‘ —— = —— = — ee ; 
+ - , A J f . We ue " oT eee ae = eed el , Jie 
’ ‘ 5 a iz i aol! a 1 ie 1 at FL 4 I 
' “ cass YUE a somerset lor tw uve reasures and ‘et ot deeds as 
: a " f = ant, eas 5, yl 5s fas ¥ 
aan a ahaa | i, = ak aie PAT, hal a) i Henle: Pip ae hy Te valu: ale | yet; Li = “4 
# F . =—_ ee a a Daa Tae a Te hr a ge a Eee! 








i oY : 
i Ne ; : 7 F r _ ' a 1 i a 
’ te al “7 J TE hi 4 Py ed r in Ly i | as tat >| i. & Ll As "I | +0 i [ie Le | 4 te 4 Hid 7 - a 2 eee bs ——S =) =” 
r r " ' | | 

















7 ee a t I = 
4 ec, al Bink J pa | te ta Loe a i Oy ea 4 & m | | 
eT nea ’ oli 
ae ie be re u J i 
Ey i) ‘ ie TELL | a t *| 1 i 1 ey ia oo rh, re © - | a de 
= J ah : — - = 
_- __ 
1 aa he Pe é mn ue 
J alt Fie a eve ht ef cre 4 i | ‘ FFL Z Pw ae pd nF = I il 
Negi rane ng WEL ‘ 
ipa iL. mm la 7 _ i a 
Pal " i] : I I f = 
yi ee a i SET j a Bin 5) | \ t 1 Li. a aa 
~ Bas alan ie r _ J _ = i allel = he 
Sov a1. mL: 5 re ae Le a FULT oF We Bb rf \ it F Lar yea a | - TT Te } i Th i Ar mT) ak = | a ri i" 
Bedell = seat = =e = oF " Pama See ae he oe a RR = i 
- y oe i i ll s 2 
F "7 : i qr 
G AC gan né WeVvVer VW at Ss De oesign 
arate Is ty I = F| 
° . — a Ae 1.6 
| 14 ! | ' Hariri li Twist i! Pe AP 1 os ee | r=) 1 1 
Th | LJ A A Ince ak ah! i a A ak a 4 | i} Lf i fl F LF. : Ja Pv pb a hes aa L= a Ld ew 
erie ey aie 1 a a I = a r 
the i it St rT , | | Cir j i ' 
| jhe i, 1 ie Ay Loe P| Fu Liles LLiTle we Ce Lee Le j Sol DT tt 
‘Hav or map Fen'l vale 1 i F =_-= =e hemes be 
= 5 ie i 1 +. iF " a i iam ai i 
q - iv e the = | re ie Peer) iT wiai hee oh ree) VA 
Hy tony i J Se ea eee Ap % s teas ' i “li = o 
a | ' “ - r # & = foal oe = 
Put a4 Lit perk La / 4 rare Wil i oa. Tih Tk ee Tt Pigeleh 
I t ; F a i i 
4 . * = * . if 
an 4 en ee 6 TH | i dl “| OL! ff Tika o£ at etl iw 
—— = I " f —— i 
J = 
| | = | r r ot i 
| ii Ahi Pei | I 1 Pal Ft i # Gt. t | ha | = 
a i =. - 7 = = 
: : | 7 
ct at Lp eel a =]! Tie | le +s). ‘thre SUAS oon 
| F r 1 
} 1 1 PLL 1 # reat is LEE eet LE La. i] 
zz . = ’ 
Cry 14 onin TT WE Th i ia 1 ay | A a ie 
. eaireti ; 
a. ryt r Bt I ae | ad a a a fii : ha ee ty siabe he ELIE 
wn ‘. i — +E > 
1 i 
a ha = a lh q Le Ah ba i t= ae & So | rae 7] C i E 
ro = 
Lae Ca Pe ok | | i it t a J i | r] | a 
- = x | " , 
Hal —™ 
‘Le F 
it | a aT Tid Ca a ai i I 5 eo} Po 
Th wie k a LE. i ‘ iL a one | 1 i I ha n r 
I 
e x = —_— —— - : = = = J 
i, mir Lo, | a | | J i 
Ba err pl z r Bh &) u "| = et Py 
Lk q ae ot a Et aL Li i a f ' a i a 
= ardaé Fis | i : = a i i ' 1 . F } | 
oa "Waa a I | J | oe iT | i t | # Lv | a, 7 . 7 a 
| TOL Cd ta d a i ri | i a 1 ne | 1 i # 5 iE : Ll fi | ba 
iy 4 
TELE LE i" =! = a a | F | ] i t ir bap P| 
= = 
q i 
agg he Lo Vs oat cL Pha | i ! we LL 
— oe - —_ a till an as | a 5 t 1 | t 
q 
a ‘hI 
ba = 
| i i 7 
Z 2) ee 
| 
| ce 5 . 4 ae has | 
a ¥ ‘ 
ai sig j i | t OTE A & but y| ie i 
| ol Linh Le | TLS D fe ir these ‘ 
Wee es oe a a 
My ie 4 # | ft hike a PL (C a a 
4. ae srgiac 3: = wea ities hie oe 


Atmosphere 55% Interaction 62% jj .Challenge 55% | 


AA rating 38% —— 


eS fl 




















| : 
. —— ’ d = zz a | I iy i a rs, 4 ie 7 
aS WLOLSL ALi Met / ej* wecret 
=— . 5 es —_ = —_—— — = = = ss a 
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fe why anyone should want to destroy the most beautiful 
1 the world is beyond the Pilg’s comprehension, but I leave 
other minds more macho than mine to dream up their own exciting 
Teasons. 
It's not ofter 
a modern utility, For the sake of Resign Td like to give 5 this game 
a clean bill of health, but tt leaves a lot t to be desired. 
First, the blurb on the cassette cover boasts “interactive 
aracters”. Well, I suppose a character with a message can be 
called interactive - but that's hardly a big deal, is it? Let's be honest 
about this, there is absolutely no way using a commercially available 
adventure creator that you can program a proper interactive 
character worthy of the name, The closest [ve seen are Fergus 
McNeill’s ipo whe wala ashes or xfosisen Marion in classe of 


















shy hov Ss signs of carelessness in program- 

-| \Orse, your inventory shows that you 

rin “capcodaccts OK, so the Pilg is 11 stone of rippling 
be | evel 11 dont ake Arnold Schwarzenegger look like 
_ The horse, methinks, should have been handled 


loo Secret 


Another example. You go into the shop, see a vial of potion 
and Buy vial. You're then told that there's No one here to buy 1 
from, despite the shopkeeper standing right in front of you. The 
problem here is that the program isn't hep you that... ahem... it 
doesn't actually understand the word vial. It expects you to enter 
Buy potion, 

| can just imagine someone at Incentive demonstrating this 
program by typing in Buy Large bottle of desoxyribonucleic acid, 
and when the prog replies as before, pointing out proudly that the 
program understands the basics of recombinant genetics. 

All is not lost, however. There are some novel features here. 
The program handles money properly (in that you can actually count 
your coins and must budget properly for expenditure) and also has 
a combat routine. The latter involves the use of three variables, 
prowess, energy, and (uck, that are assigned to the player at the 
beginning of the game in varying proportions 











When you duff up a fellow traveller, or someone comes ove! 
all heavy on the mountain path, the program cuis's you into combat 
mode and you each take it in turns to swing at the other combat 
If you're hit, you have a chance to dodge (depends how lucky you 
are), and in each round you have a chance to escape. A word of 
warning - think twice before knocking off any of the villagers, as 
their companions turn a wee bit savage when they see what you've 
done 

The other game in this set is Top Secret. Ugh. I'm afraid the 
Pilg didn't like this game much. Let's get it straight, there's nothing 
actually wrong with it but I'm afraid that afier a few years 
adventuring one gets heartily sick of penetrating yet another nuclear 


installation in order to stop some deadly missile being used to 
pervert world sanity (or what's lett of it). 


Why do we have to go through this scenario all over again? 
eucey sip graan — arent that hard to come ) by? Even killer 













to "the “old nica frat age emiee based tec Q . 
gosh-shnexk-yawn number. 
Anyway, for what it's worth, the gam 
location descriptions (even for space- hungry GAC) and at one point 
kills the player off for no better reason than he or she decides fo 

go north The old sudden-death trick, forcing you to 

reload, is now universally condemned by good | adventu ; 

everwhere. OK, so if there's a cliff to the north, ‘going north ills 

you, but at least say there's a cliff (or whatever) to the north. 

location that serves no purpose except to kill tl the play pr on 

is poor design, Says moi. 
Perhaps Incentive will get back = canes that there’ 

object in the game that would have enabled me to get past 

hazard. In that case I'll eat the dead rats I found in the se ewer... 

I think in this instance my stomach’s 8 Se ife . 
















This game, rather like CRL's Je 

by slapping a “Not Suitable For Persons Under The Age 
message on the cassette cover. Does that mean i's dir irty? Or d 
it mean that people under lb would be inte lectually incapa 
understanding its complex, convoluted prose? ‘Or does t a ane 
feature passages of ak blood-curdling horror that younger minds 
would be blasted into a terror-induced psychosis, never agair 
leave their comfy padded cells? 

























An Everythun 














Prepare yourself for the greatest adventure yet - The GUILD of THIEVES. The ultimate challenge for master criminals 
everywhere. 

Your mission, to gain membership of the prestigious Guild of Thieves. But first you must successfully return from a mythical 
isle within Kerovnia having stolen its hidden treasures. 

Now the prospect of looting and pillaging the island may seem enticing, but you'll need all the ingenuity you can muster, and 
of course criminal cunning os you try to unrovel clue after clue and solve a wealth of devious puzzles. 

With its sensational text and dazzling graphics The GUILD of THIEVES is a quest thot’s sure to tax the most resourceful 
mastermind. After all, as every Guild member knows, only crime pays. 

The GUILD of THIEVES incorporates 29 remarkable scene-setting graphics® and the kind of complex intrigue and surprise that 
has established the Magnetic Scrolls team as worthy award winners. 


ae Eries be cg wd yeas omaeaacs from Rainbird Software The GU | LD of THIEVES 


Out now on ATARI ST, AMIGA, APPLE MACINTOSH, AMSTRAD 
PCW 8256/6512 and APPLE Il (text only). Coming soon on CBM 64/128, 
AMSTRAD CPC 61278, ATAR!/ 800/130 and IBM PC. 
At oll good retailers or direct from Rainbird Software, First Floor, 
74 New Oxford Street, London WCTA IPS. Telephone: 01-240 8838. 


Screenshots stoden from the ATARI! ST version se <p  RAINBIRD SOFTWARE, FIRST FLOOR, 74 NEW OXFORD 
“Some versions do not contain graphics. Please check before purchasing 
| ‘7 logo ore trademarks of Britith lelecommunications ple. 








STREET, LONDON WCTA IPS. Rolnbird and the Rainbird 
: aaMtinw wie sd 


























Well, ho-hum, it actually doesn't mean any of these things, 
fellow Pilgys. Wot we have here is none other than a very 
light-hearted attempt to parody the contemporary adventure scene. 
In parts it's extremely amusing - other bits don't come off quite as 
well, 

As Gayleigh, the Gay and Prowd Warrior, you saunter forth into 
the land to defeat the evil Tite-Arz by locating a mystic amethyst 


that has been stolen from the Alchemist's tower. Players of Colossal 


Cave will soon recognise the terrain at the beginning of the game, 
but there have been some disturbing changes... 

You know this game is going to be different when the obligatory 
Dwarf passes by and “throws a flower at you. As he saunters away, 
you notice an unusual swivel of his hips...”. Hmmm... 

A short whfle later, at the underground lake, you find yourself 
upon a Sandie Shaw. Ho ho... And if the descnptions aren't long 
enough for you, the authors soon cheer you up with a “heavy, oak, 
strong, big, thick, sturdy, impressive, tall, hard, iron-banded, smooth 
yet slightly splintered wooden door’. Hum... 

I may seem a little reserved about this game, but the fact is 
that I did laugh a lot while I played it. For the most part the program 
is completely harmless and there's nothing ruder than Private Eye 





ADVENTURE 


or Leather Goddesses. It's been programmed by Plasma Touch (one 
of whose games has already been reviewed in an earlier issue by 
the Pilg) and shows a refreshingly relaxed approach to satire and 
sex. There's a Pattern Room (which is simply a pattern, “created by 
the Graphic Adventure Creafor"), a squeaky voice (“ooooh my 
precioussss”), and even thrusting stalactites (which should have 
been stalagmites, but I guess one mustn't be too pedantic). 

In fact, there's a good deal of thrusting throughout the game, 
as well as a good deal of doubtful prose. The Pilg really gnitted his 
teeth when confronted by “the most least good taste wallpaper you 
have ever seen”, or the “simply enormous cave” which is “big and 
large to the observing eye”. Ugh... When will adventure-game 
publishers start applying to their product the similar skills that other 
publishers apply to the written word? And it's about time, in the 
Pilg's opinion, that Steps Were Taken in this direction. 

Frankly, games just don't come any cheaper than this - either 
in content or in price. As it is, for £1.99 you just can't lose. 


Challenge 50% 


Interaction 50% 


AA rating 65% 


Atmosphere 65% 





The Pilgrim addresses the thorny problem of buying adventure software 
— for both the experienced and inexperienced player 


A few guidelines... 

Choosing adventures is not an easy task. If you're new to the world 
of interactive text games, it can be well-nigh impossible. Further- 
more, the quality and price of software in this category varies so 
wildly that one unfortunate purchase can put you off forever. On 
this page, ve done my best to offer readers a reliable and 
straightforward guide to adventure buying, together with some hints 
for beginners who may not know exactly what to expect. 

One of the first places you're hable to look is in columns such 
as this one. As a general rule, remember that of all computer games, 
adventures tend to be the most difficult to remew objectively. 
Naturally there are certain points that you look for — poor spelling, 
bugs, skimpy text, lack of originality - but in the final analysis the 
question of whether a game will appeal to readers can be answered 
only by the readers themselves. 

Bear this in mind as you make your choice from the following 
list. I've chosen 15 titles that have received endorsement from 
readers as well as myself. Whichever one you choose, | hope you 
enjoy it... 


For beginners... 

lf you're new to adventure games, you need to make your 
purchasing decisions even more carefully. The fact is that many 
people, accustomed to sizzling arcade visuals and slick animation, 
are distrustful of adventure software. Sooner or later, however, they 
decide to give it a try - and all too often they throw the game in 
the bin with disgust. That doesn't mean that adventures are rubbish 
- ft simply means they've made the wrong choice. 

The first thing you need to understand 1s that there are different 
types of game. First, there are the games that have small vocabu- 
laries. They will inevitably reject a large number of your inputs. If 
games like these are to succeed, they need clever, original, and 
logical puzzles to baffle and intrigue the player. And of course they 
need good on-screen presentation and an orginal scenano. You'll 
find a couple of titles in this tradition in the list here. Many of these 
games nowadays are programmed by people at home using an 
adventure writing utility like The Qui] or Incentive’s Grapfuic 
Adventure Creator (GAC). 

You shouldn't expect much from these simple games — but at 
the same time you shouldn't expect to pay much for them either. At 
any rate, they should keep you busy for a few hours and they'll 
certainly frustrate, baffle, and confuse you as well. 

Next, you get the slightly more ambitious game, with a larger 
vocabulary, quite a few locations, and generally some “hook” to set 


the program apart from its competitors. The hooks are usually either 
humour, high-standard graphics or outrageous originality. There 
are adventures dealing with killer bunnies, vampires, boggits and 
far-off planets. 

From the programming point of view, these games tend to be 
no more sophisticated than those in the first category, but they do 
everything on a grander scale - dozens of locations, or very long 
text descriptions, or stunning pictures. Some are programmed using 
Quill or GAC, but in these cases the authors have made a particular 
effort to customise these utilities in their own image, perhaps by 
splitting the game into many parts, or creating unusual possibilities 
for inputs. You'll find examples of this sort of games here as well. 

Finally, you get the real hard-core adventure software. These 
programs are almost without exception written by software houses 
that specialise in adventure programs and have devised their own 
writing systems. Such systems will let you enter compound sen- 
tences (“Get the brown dog and drop it in the sack”), have large 
vocabularies of 1,000 words or more, feature lengthy and vividly 
written location descriptions, and will keep you busy for days, 
weeks, sometimes even months. The only drawback here is that 
sometimes they tend to be rather expensive, or require disk-based 
systems to work. You can check out more about these “state-of-the- 
art” games in the Big Three box elsewhere on this page... 


The Big Three... 

There are currently three big names on the adventure-software 
scene in the UK. Each company represents a completely different 
style of game. 

First there's Level 9. This is a small family firm —- brothers Peter, 
Mike and Nick Austin program in Bracknell; parents handle 
production and accounts in Weston-super-Mare - that has been 
writing adventure software now for over five years. Unlike the two 
compames below, it has so far remained committed to the cassette- 
based market in the UK. This imposes some necessary limitations 
on its style, Everything has to fit in ram, so memory for pictures, 
data on interactive characters, and text are obviously limited. 

Level 9's achievement, however, has been to challenge these 
limitations and come up with some truly excellent software. You 
shouldn't expect wonderful high-res full-screen graphics or amaz- 
ingly complex conversations with other characters, but these games 
have a unique charm and are distinctly cheaper than those of 
Infocom or Magnetic Scrolls. 

(On disk, watch for a new Level § title to be released through 


AMSTRAD ACTION 63 








ADVENTURE 


Rainbird in the next months: a three-part adventure called Knight This is a compilation of three early Level 9 games, reprogrammed 
Orc.) to add graphics and larger vocabularies. It's particularly notable for 
Next, there's Infocom. This US-based comply yy Aces out including Colossal Cave Adventure, a festhful adaptation of the 
in 1986 by Activision, itself originally Americ does! p first-ever adventure. Despite the reprogramming, these games 
seem to have brought any major changes in its sc om tp ) retain their classic flavour - searching for treasure and grappling 
work. Its games are exclusively disk-based, y with the Demon orn ina magical underground empire. The pussies 
and have no graphics - Fou watt Deed 7c as witt are in some cases_yery trick Finisar crappie oiaietan celle 
Infocom’s adventure system is very forgivilig7w . Poor graphics, but a pic for 
typing in your commands - mistakes are fiopghtil eee. 2s tr had graphics when they were 
humorously) dealt with, and in addition you’ i : a it's deb: oa 2 Geek sina thate 
games feature excellent opportunities for - int . mic an¢ —— but can't afford this 
computer-controlled characters. Their p nie speed (Collossal Adventure, 
exception, excellent. The only drawback » Quest) from Level 9. You should 
afford £20+ for a game you won't be disapy ic eh » of Magik - in the same vein but 
Finally, there's a new company | i ge - Magn emphasis on spells. 
This small programming house in os Hon 
released The Pawn and —- possibly by th p you read thus — 7, ey -— f a 
of Thieves for the Amstrad mach es. ! The: drawn on the British hizziers., teaser: ic , cs... 
tradition of including graphics - s ot aie st youll ev . : — - foe ) and pretty pics 
The Magnetic Scrolls games also tend - SHightly 
their scenanos - but always entertal 
leaves from tafser’ book by stic 
good facilities for interaction with ¢ 
cost you quite as much. 













































th 


r. ) | 
= ve 
7 
: 99 
a te ie 


With neat, unambitious graphics, a small 
d some en c yable puzzles. Don't expect much, but it 
der two quid d and is a good example of a simple 
GAC. ‘he: rée@ also a “prequel” - - for the 
i ually well worth trying out if you ehior Seabase 

How they're rate 3 
games. “Difficulty” gives yous 
are likely to find making p 
far there is to go! | ' 
This means that a game With a 
Se eae ces tT ul 
once you've solved it, t 5 else to ‘0 
On the other hand, ag mieéwith a difficulty rating of zero 
and a oe of 100% we id have an infin te ‘number of 
| ee “4 SERIE Objective, Het! 


50 
, CBS &HR) 
Cc challe inge » 55° 


F us ogee + 






brewed game where the animals lend you 
i: clei satarive carson wsseed bs on 
y, resulting in a simple adventure with very 
y but lots of charm. 























Se 










| ; : Zi. - CRL, £7.95 
suited to you. If you're fieSort of pérsoh Wholikes crossword a a 

’ ‘ae uo , : P ro pl rm : 7" 

. On the offer 





prefer a game with ; es = Robin of Sherwood and Sherlock. It's an saoalen 

















hand, if you're more(i fantasy, es gal has Wedel Ge ks) Cad ct 
feeling of besa | for a idhel or ot Ms Seaeinn Dont waneet a niaeeis SOnbeaery, 
ae ee the challenge raf 4 to be entertained by both the wit and the puzzles - 
the meatier the game — whereas a rating over § 0% hich are rather difficult. Some nice graphics too. Games 
should give novices cause for the Store purchase. — vein include The Boggit and Bored of the Rings. 





Finally, [ve tied to avoid me a, fing too many obvidt ca 
choices - most le will have heard of Hitchhiker's Guide “ cS | | 
to the Galaxy trom infocom or The Hobbit from Melbourt, % pariord ~ interceptor, £1.99 

House. Here, however, are 10 games that the Pilg seckons® ee Difficulty 63% Challenge 60% 

are worth shelling out for... tel 

One of Interceptor's simple-format games distinguished by some 

truly excellent artwork and a vivid atmosphere in Roman Britain, 


Classics... now a bargain £2. Text is a bit skimpy, but these games still 
managed to sell well in their time at over three times the price. 
Heroes of Karn - Interceptor, £1.99 cass Back to the future... 





Petiitentss 705 Challenge 65% 


Silicon Dreams - Rainbird/Level 9, £14.95 cassette, £19.95 disk 


challenging puzzles. Best of all, for what nowadays is a rather = oe 
primitive program, it has an attractive scenario and whimsical 4 Tlogy of Level 9 programs dealing with mankind's future efforts 
atmosphere that has kept it on the shelves of many players. Now ‘© Colonuze the Planet Eden. Author Pete Austin used the scenarios 
excellent value for £2. of spacestup, planet and future society to convey uneasiness at our 
ie technocratic tendencies. Snowball, the first game, is notonously 
| ____—- difficult, and the final adventure, Worm in Paradise, has a coded 
Jewels of Darkness - Rainbird/Level 9, £14.95 cass, £19.95 transport system that only the best minds will crack without 
disk cheating. A picture for every location, but don't expect great art - 
Difficulty 75% Challenge 92% a ei ag varies enormously; the worst are little more 








64 AMSTRAD ACTION 





State of the art... 


Wishbringer - Infocom Activision, £24.99 disk only 
Difficulty 78% 


Challenge 89% 





Magic and mystery from the masters of the genre — this time at their 
“introductory” level, which means that the prog is designed for 
first-time players. You stumble into another world, seeking the local 
shopkeeper's cat, which has been kidnapped by the Evil One. 
Probably the only game with a vicious poodie puzzle. Should appeal 
to both experienced and inexpenenced players. The best thing 
about Infocom games is the way their parser (the bit that 
“understands” what you type in) deals with a wide range of inputs 
and struggles manfully to respond - helpfully, wittily, or at least 
honestly. Text-only. 


Suspect - Infocom/Activision, £24.99 disk only 


‘Challenge 87% 





Difficulty | To 


The Pilg's favourite adventure — though Anita Sinclair of Magnetic 
Scolls rather dampened his enthusiasm by saying that she had 


AA small ads 


ADVENTURE 


solved the game “by accident’ 
smart country house party, you discover a murder victim. Round 
her neck is your very own lariat. Astonishingly well designed and 
programmed character interaction (you can even overhear other 
people's conversations) make up for a slightly lumited number of 
locations. Text-only. Like all Infocom games, it comes in a smart 
box with a number of absorbing goodies apart from the disk. 


". As a journalist in fancy-dress at a 


The Pawn - Magnetic Scrolls/Rainbird, £19.95 disk (6128 only) 
Difficulty 80% 





Challenge BE % 


The first Mag Scrolls game, originally developed for the QL 
machine. Excellently programmed with sliding graphic screens that 
slip down over the text at your command. The pics are some of the 
best seen on the Amstrad CPC machine (perhaps the best) and the 
game's parser is very sophisticated. There are a number of different 
objectives in the game; you interact with wizards, kings and even 
a guru. Certainly the most impressive UK adventure to date, but 
unfortunately not available on cassette. Watch out for Mag Scrolls’ 
next release, Guild of Thieves, due out very soon. 





| For sale 

CPC 6128 with colour monitor and DK 
Tronics converter to convert monitor into a 
COOur Teirvision plus software on dick (400 
R Wost, @ (0782) 32 2590 

CRC 464 green monitor, modulator, Perfect 
condition, sill bowed. Any offers considered; 
must be eld. Replies in wring John Hogan, 
l Avon Ave, jarrow, Tyne and Wear, NEG 
4B 





CPC 6128, colour morwior and second dak 
drive (FDI) and dust covers, boxed, £350 
Aleo 13 three-inch disks £10. All excellent 
condition, TF (0739) 7ES6o 

CPC 6124, colour monitor, peyenck Oniy 6 
months ob. yours for tais. FF Ol. 7o4 22) ext 
44, ask for Dawid Weokonds of after fom 
01-906. 4467 

Screenvision for salo [50 only @ (0902) 
55636 after 6pm, ask for Stuart 


CRC (64 with CTM 640, DDI-|, DMP 2000 
hundreds of pounds of business and games 
poftwaro. And § «3 —Epasinets cesk, three 
drawers and one cupboard No reasonable 
Offer retused T% Bokon (0204) bke49 
Ametrad BSZ732C (no Pace RS202). Com me 
£50, sell for £3). Guaranieed not faulty. Good 
for anybody thinkang of going into commun. 
cation ¢ra. M Mohbd-Saleh T 01-58] S657 of 
01-561 143 

DEY Silicon disk and 4% « m for 464 
(£25) DE? 464 Speech Synth (£15). Box of ton 
unused Ameo j-inch disks (£15). Sesond 
inch drive for any CPC (iSO). @ (0605) 
0658 alter 7 30pm 

Bombecar¢ map and playing fips. Please 
end lenet enclosing lange tac and Li cash 
10 Toby Mace, 5 Shoes Way. Yaeley. Cam 
berley, Surrey, GUIT 7S. Hurry” 


Sedection, adult compuser game for over-jé« 
ony. Arcade adventure wih over 50 disgust 
ing screeng Send £5 (pfkp incl) io David Shaw, 
2) Baller Court, Kilmarnock. 

Amalog password proiection for CPM Plus 
on CPC 6128. (6.55 disk only. Wrae to Tony 
Hoyle, |] Dorset Road. S Annes, Lance, FYG 
ZED 

Amstrad Pagemaker (0 new fonts pho two 
pages of chpart (6 on dak Graham Aegon 
10 Ludac Grove, Dunfermline, Fie, EY 1 


Disk drive for 464. Write with details to Pau! 
Hickman, 25 Chesham Drive, Laindon, Essex. 
5515 4AH 

First disk drive of printer for Amstrad 464 
compieie wih leads TH (06844) $175. 





| Services| 


6128 owners!’ Tape-to-disk conversions 

only £1 inclucsng pip Send orginal tape(a) 

phat a disk and £) per tape to K Shepherd. 

a2 Egerton Rd, Seedy. Sumon Coldfield, W 
Mods, B74 IPG 


Eproms programmed Al! Basic of machine: 
code programs transferred (disk of tape) 
publ to copynght. (12 for the firs 16k 
eprom and £5 per addmonal [6k Same-day 
merce, Gareth "mr osaT4) 440. eworungs 

Eprom service Transler your sofware to |6k 
eprom. Only £8 Send sae and your details 
Andrew MacPhee, (0 Raypnew Crescent, Latte 
Oakley. Haneuch Essex Old SED 


we hawen't, af onniee, checked oul 
these small-advertisers, ao must aay te 





reader: “al your own rik.” 





This new section of the magazine offers you 
the chance to speak directly to the huge 
waiting world of CPC owners - or would-be 


OWwner®rs. 


You can place an ad of up to 3) words 


send this form to: AA small ads 
Order form 


for just £5. So you could use it to sell a printer 
or launch a user group or publicize a piece of 
software you've written. 

One thing you can’ advertise is the sale 
or swap of software you've purchased. Such 


ads can be misused by software pirates. 
Just fill in the application form and send 


it to us together with payment. We'll then place 





the ad in the next available issue (published 
2-7 weeks after we receive your order.) 





oC eee Pee treet rerres trou teerrett te TEotre rc tectteoreecrerLeaiLaiLe LeeLee Lee LLeiieioreeieiieeusereieuiteriersterriieisi 


Classification: Forsale (©) Wanted (©) Services | 


| User groups 


Credit card expiry date ...........000..... Bee te en ARC a REE NE hee 


Please make cheques and POs payable to Future Publishing Ltd 


-] Other 





White your advertisement here, one word per box. If you want your name or phone number printed, they must be included in the boxes. 


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SOPTWARE ALSO IN STOCK FOR THE PC'PCW PLEASES SING FOR DETAILS & PRICED 
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REAL word processing for children. A clear, attractive program, 


with very simple operation - it comes with specially written 


JUNIOR-WORDPRO 
CHILDREN’S WORD PROCESSOR 
for Amstrad CPC 464/664/6128 


furonals. Tested and approved by teachers. 


Also useful for quick notes and fetters. JUNIOR-WORDPRO is 


ideal for non-technically minded adults too! 


£8.50 (Cassette) £11.50 (Disc) 
Overseas please add £1! 


RAMASOFT (Dept A.A.) 
6 Stile Plantation, ROYSTON 4 


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Tel. (0763) 43715 











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DMP-2000/3000 BUFFER UPGRADE KIT 


The printer buffer prese the DMP 2000/3000 i¢§ a 2K RAM. Mose of this RAM | 

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4 pages of text) Trig upgrade will alte allow all of the Download Character 
re-chelined 


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Set to be 


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ceenbilic and ahes Lr Peet The kit 
the grnateur 


Prices:- 


iupplied with full pictorial instructions to allow 
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65.50 (UK) EUROPE £6.75 REST OF THE WORLD (7,50 
NEW SPEEDTRANS (V1.43) NEW 


This i an enhanced verwon of the on ginal SPEEDTRANMS which will now ctransfe 

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Prices: €5.50(UK) EUROPE £6.75 REST OF THE WORLD (7.50 
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'? AMSTRAD @ « oe AMSTRAD = # e* AMITHAD © « 





CLs PRICE OLA FRC E Gua PCE 
Burkaranm — | Tank = fh] ae Warhae = [ay i #4 
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PLEASE SMG TO CONFI AVAILABILITY OF AP OP LP ATES 
















£300 worth of hardware and everlasting 
fame to be won 





e 


* 


Budding superstars, reach for your assemblers now, Here's your 
chance for fame and fortune. By programming a special effect you 
can get your name up in lights on the new game from Incentive 
called Driller. Your reward will be £300 of the computer equipment 
of your choice - a really juicy prize 
Dniller is stil under development and [ncentive is keeping 
details under wraps. All we know is that it features a graphic 
programming technique called “Freescape’. This promises solid 3D 
graphics that you can walk in and around, just hke being there 
The graphics are taken care of, so what Incentive needs are 
some superb sound-elfects and border effects to match them. 
Naturally the Incentive people have come to AA readers to supply 
them. 
The effects can be of any nature, but here are some ideas of 
what you could do: 
@ Laser fire (incoming and outgoing) 
@ Gon or cannon shot 
Explosive noise 
Reward tunes and effects 
Falling and rising noises 
Bumping and cracking into solid objects 
Dematenalizing noe 
End-of-game noise or tune 
| Graphical border effects 
| Window-clearing effects 







ci 


aa aa 


o 0 





COMPETITION 


















2 » Oo 


Incentive personne! will judge the entnes themselves and the 
winner and runners-up will all have their effect featured in the game. 
The winner will get £300 worth of computer equipment, the effect 
inluded in Driller, a full credit in the Driller project and a copy of 
the game. The runners-up will get their effects included in the game 
along with a full credit and a copy of the game. The number olf 
runners-up depends purely on the quality of the entries, but 
obviously Incentive will want to use as many as possible in the game. 

Obviously you'll need fair technical skill to enter the comp, 30 
here are the points you should bear in mind. You can send in as 
many entries as you like with the coupon. They should be on tape 
or disk together with clear details of how to load and run the effect. 
Each routine should be less than 500 bytes and supplied with a 
documented assembler listing 

The judges will be looking for good effects that are short as 
well. And of course they've got to be your own onginal work. 

Send entries to: AA Effects Comp, Incentive Software, 2 
Minerva House, Calleva Park, Aldermaston, Berks, RG7 4QW 
Because it's a tncky competition you've got an extended deadline: 
31 August. The game itself will appear in the autumn - and we look 
forward to spreading fame all over the world for some of our 
readers 


















Amstrad owners can now 
transter any program to disc or 

tape at the touch of a button 64K in just | 
14 secs. from disk The New MK111 is much 
faster loading with unbelievable compression 
using less space on your disk Undoubtedly the best 
copier available today and the Only one recommended by 
the Amstrad Users Club. Don't settle for less 


aie ) I i 


Please state your Amstrad No. CPC464, CPC664 or CPC5128 





eee = in case of difficulty order directly from Available trom good retailers everywhere 
MIRAGE Mirage Microcomputers Ltd | : 
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3) BK RAM EXTENSION 4) RESET BUTTON for “warm’ reset 
All at an AMAZING PRICE of £46.95! 

















iF : 
| "The clevere: cleverest hardware device at present Amstrad Action | "AMTIX NOV 86" 
MULTIFACE TWO is UNIQUE both in unbeatable value and features: 

*it ie the only truly sutomatic back-up device — the programs are RELOADED *MULTIFACE 2 is EXTREMELY FAST in both SAVING & RELOADING - ta INTELLIGENT 
exactly os they were STOPPED and SAVED, incl. the colours and sound — no IMPRE at WG and TURBO saving fo dictape Manes # standard 64K ; program reload 
other peripheral can AESTORE COLOURS AUTOMATICALLY and some Cary in wp ti 920 SECONOS fray me gk — Offer produc fs fake 4-5 prmes tonger! — or wat 
programs will not RELOAD & RUN properly then —- BEWARE! and use over 5 minutes from tape. The most EFFICIENT COMPRESSING also results in minimal 
MULTIFACE TWO only. ipace vied of oiec or tape 

* Coes mot Occupy any part ofahe Amstrad FAM and requires "MULTI TOOLKIT is the only existing combination of hardware and software 

*No additional softwar =~ has internal BK ROM and 8K ARAM copeble of displaying & moditying EVERYTHING you may wish to know sbout 

* STOPS ANY prograr nm AT rg You can /wer PAUSE or SAVE of wae MULT) TOOLKIT program and current state of computer, You can PEEK/POKE the entire 
afc. Progr a wil CONTINGE from the game point when you RET UAN or REL GAD neni AMSTAAD contents incl. extra BK AAM, 280 registers, colours, etc. You can 
ime — everything js FULLY and AUTOMATICALLY RES rORED open a WINDOW end scroll through 66 byte blocks in decimal, hex and aven 

*MENLU-ORIVEN, fully ERROR-TAAPPED with prompts and one-touch commands ASCH! representation (ia. vip dye seen a8 text to reves! messages, etc) with 
urning complex tasks into a trivial peocedure = all you need to do is to push the button full on-screen editing. You get INFO on screen mode/stert address, interrupt 
anc select from the menu mode, ao. of characters par line, horizontal sync. position, lower and upper 
SAVE — to name & SAVE a program to disc. tape of hyperiape ROM and RAM bank wteatus, ROM type, ete. And ALL can be changed... 
ppc to CONTINUE @ piogear ale? any Operation "COMPATIBLE with Peppers ROMS RAMS and any other dewees 

IMP — notte return but 10 JUMP to another address, say 10 your own routines in the BE "PLUGS DIRECTLY mio CPC 464 664 6126 = no need for extras 
RAMA exlensean " Sa ¢ PROGRAM or a tull 25-line SCREEN ONLY 
TOOL ‘io access MULTI TOOLKIT routines 4ROUGH extension BUS for cor necting other pernphersis | 








miutiiaee 1/71 / Ya Bs | = ESSENTIAL J AMSTRAD CPC COMPANION | 
Please send me a MULTIFACE TWO at £46.95 plus p&p — UK £1.00 Europe £2.00. Overseas £3.00 


lenclose acheque/PO for .............0.00. ee OF debit my y Bae N No 
Name & address Fe eats ta NI ah 


ROMANTIC ROBOT VE LTD i; Hayland Close London NW9 OLH rc) 24 hrs = = 01- 200 8870 (AA 
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IF TS! 


i from past issues af AA. Overall, a pretty 














Taking out a SS eubscription to Amstrad ns from pf 

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For se OWners theres Krakout on cas- on the Action 

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Of for-Gigs owners, theres an AA spe- 
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the fancier features of the full version (RRP 
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LL, 







Phe C asset fe tre 
reroy ion of tr = 
Bouin ie em. The RRP Gre: ns it ve be lic 
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RASY PROSPEL, 


wSstanning di 
a Circe 

(9 Spell-check tare ot CH will al 

Pe i AE £ oF Ps 
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Watchin = = bi SS = ae 
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You can use it with ProTextoor with other: 
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that isn't enough, the disk also 
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The Amstrad Action Collection 85-86 
Now only £3.95 — save £3!! 


We stull have a few copies left of the publica- your way around theres a special index 
‘espectable games-player should be allowing you to tum instantly to the game you 
wikeel Under a single cover it gives you all need help on. 
| the Cheat Mode and most of the game-maps The book is built to last It's printed on 
printed in the first 16 issues of Amstrad Action. heavy-duty high-quality paper with a strong 
= —— Literally hundreds of pokes, tips, mini-articles glossy cover. It looks good and we think youll 
and maps are included. And to help you find love it. 








MAKING MUSIC ON THE AMSTRAD 
Now only £3.95 — save £3!! 








lan Waugh's 181 page book is aimed at 
allowing you to take full advantage of the 


HOW TO ORDER Amstrad's sophisticated sound facility. Ghap- 
Use the form on the next page but one (the ter and. section headings include: What is 
order code of the product you want is listed Music?, The Sound Command, Programming 
next to the form). Or telephone us with your Scales ands Ptiches, ENV and ENT the 
credit card details on 0458-74192 (24-hour Volume and/Tone Envelopes, Zaps and Zings 


answerphone) or 0458-74011 (a human being and otherthings, Playing theimstrad, Making 
Micro Mugi¢, Producing echoes, Delay effects, 


in office hours) i 
White noise, Simple sound effects, Designing 
a rhythm urit, Soundscapes, Tle Amstrad 
synthegi#er, Altering the Bass riff, Saving the 
tune, Using chords, Impfoving the melody, 
Sindg-alondg-d-Mmatic 
There are numerous program listings and 
examples to show you the way. \Great value 
for any CPC owner with an interest in Sound 





AMSTRAD ACTION 69 


SPECIAL OFFERS 





Hun for memory’ Want to ram up your 
H 

RAM? Here's a fantastic way of doing it which 

will give you the powerful DK’Tromecs D4 

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for the normal pnce of £99.95 or (for 6128 





owners) the massive 256K upgrade for (75 
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A. 64K memory upgrade will allow you 


foes, 4 Ba $64 or 664 to run many of the programs which 
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£39.95 (for 464 and 664) 





255K upgrade offers 61268 owners vast extra 
storage. They simply plug into the back ol 
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with the suppled “bank-switching” software 
The Sibcon Disc System allows you to set 
up a 648 drive B (or C) which will operate 
faster than an ordinary disc drive (although 
data must be transferred off u« before the 
computer is switched off.) The System 
operates from AMSDOS or CPM 22 (but not 


| | | CPM Plus), and if you have a 464, you will also 
|e e gate, s , a need a normal disc drive connected 
| | are | . 4 a just fill in the details on the order form 





ry 







ver the page and let us qve you something 


to remember 


£75 (for 6128 







2-piece set only £6.95 


Ever wondered why Fou see so many com The Specially commss1oned Amstrad Ac 


puter dust covers advertised’ Its because tion covers are made from high-«p an 


9 ny as Dae a 0 
Lhe bd eget Be we eh a 


computers dont hike dust. Over a period of proof PVC. They're coloured a gentle beige 
ime it can make them very il 


indeed: disk § with smart blue trimming and matching Am- 

agrves and cassette decks in particwar can Strad Action loge 

suffer senous, sometimes fatal damage You can order i a 
A. set of dust covers provides a neal for your CPO system — just choose the correct 

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when its not in use 


AMSTRAD ACTION 





The ultimate word-processing 
combination 
For Amstrad CPC 464, 664 and 6128. 


PACKAGE | — save £15!! 
B® ROMEO ROM-box 

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PACKAGE 2 — save £30!! 
B® ROMBO ROM-box 

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@ FRUOSPELL on ROM 

Only £79.90 complete 


There i a way of achieving blinding word- 
processing power on an Amstrad CPC. You 
take the best available package, custom-writ- 
ten to the Amstrad'’s strengths - that's Profext 
And you run it from a ROM chip plugged 
directly into the back of your machine. That 
gives two big advantages — it loads instantly 
and if doesnt use up any of your RAM, so you 
an handle long documents in memory 

The combination is startling. You'll find 
YOU can zoom around a SOK file at bohming 
speed, far more effectively than on any other 
CPC word-processor. Formatting, copying 
search and replace are all done al 4 pace 
which puts to shame more expensive pac 
Kages. And the speed isnt achieved at the 
expense of features Profext boasts a fully 
prolessional spec. We know, because we use 
tt to write Amstrad Action 

The Kombo RFOM-board which we're 
supplying with Profext is probably the best 
aVailabie. lt includes some clever electronmcs 
which allow you to run any CPC ROM on any 
of the CPC machines. And after you've fitted 
theFProfext chip there's space for seven more 
should you get ROM-addicted. We're offering 
packages which also contain Arnor's superb 
speling-checker FroSpel/ and mailmerger 
ProMerge 

rrofext alone normally costs £79.55 on 
ROM while ROMBO retails at £34.95, the same 
price as ProMerge and ProSpel/ when bought 
separately. So our packages offer you a 
remarkable bargain. And if you'd prefer, we 
can also supply the software on cassette o: 
disk af discounted prices - details on nex 
page 

Whichever combination you choose 
Profext is a must for serious word-processing 
users 


1 


HOW TO ORDER 


Use the form on the next page (the order 


code of the product you want is listed next 





PACKAGE 3} — save 
@ ROMBO ROM-box 

@ PROTEXT on ROM 

@ PROSPELL on ROM 

@ PROMERGE on FOM 
Only £99.90 complete 


to the form). Or telephone us with your} 


credit card details on 0458-74192 (24-hour 
answerphone) or 0458-74011 (a human being 
in office hours) 





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SPECIAL OFFERS 








PASSENGERS ON THE WIND 
Only £9.95 cass, £11.95 disk — save £3!! 
Save money on this great AA Mastergame 
from Infogramme. “An innovative enterain- 
meant packed with originality and based on a 
succesful comic book.” There are ten episodes 
featuring some outstanding screen pictures 
and excellent soundtrack 





ARKANOID 
Only £6.95 cass — save E2!, £11.95 disk - 
save £3! 


Breakout is revived in one of the most addic- 
tive games 5 you'll ever play. Bouncing a Dall 
with a bat has never been so much fun as 
aliens swoop about you, lasers fire wildly and 
bricks and balls fly in all directions. An AA 





REAT 


A cracking way of buying state-of-the-art software. 
All these games have won AA Mastergame or Rave awards. 





KRAKOUT 
Only £7.95 cass — save LZ}, 
save £3 

100 screens of bouncing mayhem as Breakout 
takes to the screen again. Everythings big 
beautiful and bouncy as you encounter the 
demon hall swallower, explosive bricks and 
many more features. The horizontal alhtermative 


£11.95 disk - 













Rave from Imagine to Arkanoid 








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ORDER FORM — AA 22 : 

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Address ° : | 
sec PROBE CODE ccscsscccssnnsasssscencasecancan re a 

Machineowned:  _) CPC 454 J] CPC 664 ) CPC6128 | . 

| ' 





















; Please Bond m6 ne set Fast ems fr from the Be Amara Action special offer pages. _ 





USE THESE ORDER CODES 


| Detais of those products are given on this soread 
| and the preceding pages 


OUR ORDER 














SUBSCRIPTION «+ KRAKOUTF1650 Az30 
SUBSCRIPTION « PROSPELLEIES) A231 
CHEATMODEBOOR. = sS F395) «6S? 
MAKING MUSIC ON AMSTRAD £395 A?33 

PROTEXT + ROMBO 
i — CAT 
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. PROTEXT enOSC. e795 «Az 
PROTEXT on CASSETTE... Fi6.sS AZO5 

TOTAL PAYABLE | és : 
| OK TROWICS 64K UPGRADE. £39.95 A206 
Please circle your method of payment: ACCESS = VISA » CHEQUE + PO (with tree Seaton cee) 


DK TROMCS 2564 UPGRADE. £75.00 AZO? 
fanth free Sebton cher] 


Make cheques + postal orders payable to FUTURE PUBLISHING LTD. paying by credit card, please enter details: 


CREDIT CARD NUMBER | EXP.DATE 3 


AA DUST COVERS 


CPC 464 mono___$______._._.__f6 95 A2o8 


CRC 464 coloue__ rt) 


























CPC 604 mong SH 
CPC 644 colour 
CPG 6128 mons ee 
CPC 6128 colour 


wh-slecreen__..______—-—s #h ox 





OK 80t 


AA BINDER 


Passengers on the Wind CASS..F9.95 
Passongers onthe Wing DISK £T 1.85 
Propibiion CASS 4 
Prohibition DISK TTS 
PRIOTOO) GAS San eereettereretintrerevens tad 
Pieter Ossett senna. 1.95 
Arkanoid GASS a aS 
ee I” 
Krekout DISK 


Head Over Hees DISK OTT 85 





A210 
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Aziz 
AZ13 


A214 | 
AZ1S | 


AZTE 


AZ17 


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Only £5.95— save £2! 


Whats white, dangles papers next to your 
computer screen, and costs two pounds less 
than in the shops? Yes, a Thing: bought 
through Amstrad Action. 

This remarkable computer accessory - 
an idea so simple it's ingenious — could dra- 
matically ease your hours at the keyboard. All 
it is is a cleverly shaped piece of plastic that 
attaches via Velcro to the top of your micro. 
But with a Thingi on your CPC you can have 
documents, letters or program listings clipped 
right next to the screen in perfect reading 
Position. 


Only £9.95 — save £3! 


This will do for your discs what an AA binder 
‘chose peat lined The box is 
‘It's specially daslgnect to take Amsoft 3° 
“dises and will hold 20 (including their cases). 
A classy way to keep your work top organis- 
ed. 














If you own Access or Visa credit cards you can place your 
order by telephone at any time of day or night, seven days a 
week. just dial 0458-74192 and be ready with your name and 
address, credit card number and expiry date, and the details 
of the soitware you wish to order, Alternatively, if you prefer 
a human being to an answerphone, you can ring 0458-74011 
during olfice hours and ask for “Credit Card Orders” 


SPECIAL OFFERS 





WANT A THINGI? 


Any task involving copying off paper is | 
thereby made much easier and faster. in fact, 
the chp supplied ts sturdy enough to supr | 
an issue of Amstrad Action open, say, al the 
Type-ins section, 

The Thingi comes in two versions, one 
for positioning to the left of the screen, the 
other to the right - the Velcro adjustment 
allows oasy readjustment or temporary re- 
moval. | 
A really sensible, cost-effective add-on 
for your CPC, 





Save £20 on the amazing digitiser 
- only £69.95! 





/An accessory which adds a dramatic new | 
| capability to your CPC. You can use it to ‘grab’ 
lpictures from a video recorder or video 
Camera and display them on your computer | 
|screen to save, edit (using an art software | 
package such as Ar Studio) or print out 
Draws the crowds at all the Amstrad 
shows with its impressive images, which can 
handie colour as well as mono. And now you 
can buy it for £20 off the recommended retail | 
price of £89.95 | 
It comes complete with connections to | 
any CPC and with software on disk. 








































24-HOUR HOTLINE 


0458-74192 























HACKING THE CODE 


Heres a tongue-in-cheek glossary 
of terms that crop up in reviews 
cassette inlays, adverts and other 
oomputer-orented areas. Weve 
just come up with a few, bul 
perhaps youd like to send us your 
own interpretation of some jargon 
Arcade smash hil somebody 
played it a couple of ti times in a 
har in Belgium 

‘Brilhantiy playable I have 
absolutely no idea why I like this 
qame 

‘Kids from 8 to 60 will love i 
anyone can beat this in five min- 
Uies 

‘Worldwide hit’ we sold one | 
Peru 


= 


Megagame™ we paid six fig 

ures for the hcence 

‘Utterly addictive’ = spend weeks 

trying to find something interest 

ing 

“Invaluable aid” = we don't kn 

what it does ether 

You are equipped with the wit- 

mate weapon = a laser 

A new concep! in games = we 

cant afford expensive arcade l- 

cences 

Totally onginal” nobody else 

Was Mad enough to release this 

nonsense 

‘Realistic simulation 60 COmpii- 

cated it takes a lifetime to work 

oul what you're supposed to do 

“Avallable now were planning 

a CONnVversion in six months 

“Real-time action” the aliens 

move e@ignt times faster than you 

ac 

Compilation of four greal games” 
three Very old games and one 

that wasn't fit to be released . 

our budget label 

‘Photon megablasto lazer zap 

gun 

‘Proton diparticle decelerator’ = 

shield 





74 AMSTRAD ACTION 





“Over 200 frames of animation 
he blinks a lot. 

smooth scrolling well it was 
on the other versions; cant think 
what happened to this one 

“Will you accept the challenge? 

dont expect us to help you alter 

you ¥e bought it, 


‘There's a slight delay on the 
game the programmer's in 


hospital after a hang-gliding acci 
dent: we'll have to start all over 
again 


Delightful tile screen” = gets 


WOrse arom Tere on 

T wont reveal any more of the 
games secrets” = | couldnt get 
beyond the first screen 

Fully compatible sorry, Com- 
plete lie this one. 


"Rush out and buy #” = [ve past 


received a large, free lunch from 
the soltware house. 

“Hilarious action it's laughably 
bad 

‘Teon-dinven adventure the 
programmer s illiterate. 

‘Com ene fé instruction s 
and they're all in Spanis 





BREEDING MICE 


Were a little worried here at the 
office about our AMX mouse. II 
appears fo be mulnplying aot 
since its incarnation we've di 
covered two new fypes. "AN 


ii 


f 
claims its because they ve had | 
change the construction of the 
buttons and the ball, but we've got 
a sneaking suspicion that thav'n e 
pan-dimensional beings studying 
us for research and breeding 
rapidiy so as to take over the 
world. Our advice: keep em 
caged or wrapped ina plastic bag 


=. 


% 
= | 


































































———————  — ———————— ————<—< 


Avaj Labbe {imeeeer | | Satire ae artes PRICED: 
| E146 .953 CASSETTE 


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